After Acid-Attacks, Thousands Of Iranian Women Take To The Streets

Beenish Ahmed
Posted on October 22, 2014 at 12:35 pm Updated: October 22, 2014 at 3:20 pm
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At least four women in Iran's cultural capital were attacked with acid this week. Although police have arrested four men in connection to the acid-throwing, about 2,000 protesters marched on the department of justice in Ifsahan to decry the crime, which is relatively rare there. This massive outcry reflects on a burgeoning, social media-driven movement for increased social freedoms in the theocratic country.
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One 28-year-old woman was attacked while driving her car with her window rolled down. She suddenly lost control while driving and then stumbled out of the door screaming, "I'm burned, I'm burned." She then stripped off her head scarf - the covering is mandated by law for women in Iran along with loose-fitting clothing over the torso, arms, and legs.
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"The level of acid used was so much that all her clothes were in the processes of melting and I saw the acid create white spots on the asphalt," one witness told the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
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The acid that is thrown on people - mostly women - is often highly corrosive and meant to disfigure and maim them. Acid-throwing occurs around the world from South Asia to South America and is on the rise in Italy and in the United Kingdom.
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Acid-throwing is unusual in Iran and the recent attacks have led many to believe that this recent spate of attacks are a natural outgrowth of a new law protecting, as the New York Times put it, "those citizens who feel compelled to correct women and men who in their view do not adhere to Iran's strict social laws" which was enacted by the country's parliament on Sunday. Though, to be sure, the law affords private citizens with the right to hand out verbal or written comments on social codes - not partake in vigilante violence.
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