Sometimes We Fight Back...

Bangladesh, 2004.

”No! I don’t want to marry you!”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re mean! You’re rude to women and you always get into fights. I don’t want to marry you, I want a nice husband!”

“You will do as I say!”

“No!”

“Who do you think you are, saying no to me like that? You’re just a woman! I don’t care what you want, you will marry me, or I will kill you!”

“I will NEVER marry you! And if you try to hurt me, my brothers will beat you up!”

“You’ll regret this…”

Shimani watched him go, and sighed with relief that the fight was over. She still felt a big knot inside her tummy, though. She was worried. Anghal wasn’t the kind of man who accepted a woman’s ‘no´. He would surely try to punish her for not agreeing to marry him. From now on, she would never go out alone again. She’d talk to her brothers, and ask them to protect her.

Anghal fumed with rage as he walked away. That shameless girl! How DARED she say no to him? How dared she call him all those things? He’d show her. He’d teach her not to insult Anghal!

He walked into the petrol station, and bought a small can of battery acid. It didn’t cost more than 25 cents. He’d show that bitch who was the man of the two! That disgusting girl, who didn’t know her place! Just because she was pretty, she though she could get away with talking back to a man, and insult him? He’d mark her. He’d make sure everyone who saw her would see that she was a disgusting little dog. She wouldn’t be able to hide behind a pretty facade anymore!

He’d show her. If he couldn’t marry her, he’d make sure that nobody else wanted to, either! She’d live the rest of her life alone, to think of what she had done.

He crept through the bushes outside her house. That was her window, he had already spied on her house, and he knew what room was hers.

He put his arm through the open window, the can in hand, the lid off… he aimed for the dark figure in the bed, and then threw the battery acid in her face.

Her screams, full of pain and fear, followed him as he ran away. There! That ought to show her!

“The damages are pretty severe,” said the doctor. “Even when the wounds heal, her face will be full of scars, and she has lost 60% movability in the skin. We will try to operate her, so she may open her mouth again, but we can’t replace her lips nor her nose… and I’m afraid she’s lost her left eye.”

Shimani’s mother cried hysterically. The pain and trauma was terrible enough, but what future did a woman with a damaged face have? No man would ever want to marry Shimani now, with the skeleton bared in her face, and what kind of life would an unmarried woman have? There were hardly any jobs for an unmarried woman, and besides, who would hire a woman with half her face gone? Who would support her?

“Has the perpetrator been arrested?” asked the doctor.

Shimani’s father hung his head. His voice was trembling when he said:

“He has been released. They say he will not be sentenced for this. He’s free.”

“Your sister looks like a skeleton! You can see the bones of her face sticking out!”

“You’re evil! How could you do this to her? You have destroyed her life!”

“I will do the same thing to you, if you don’t do as I say!”

“What do you want from me? I’ve never done anything wrong to you!”

“You will sleep with me, or I’ll make you as ugly as your sister!”

“No! You can’t ask this of me! How will I find a husband, if I’m no longer a virgin?”

“I don’t care! You will sleep with me, or I’ll do the same thing to you as I did to your sister!”

“No! Please, don’t hurt me! I will do what you ask.”

“You will come to my house tonight.”

“Yes, Anghal.”

“Don’t try to fool me, Kakoli! Battery acid is cheap – I can easily get another can.”

“Yes, Anghal…”

“Brother, I need your help!”

“What is it, Kakoli?”

“Anghal has threatened me that he will do to me what he did to Shimani, if I don’t come to his house tonight.”

“That son-of-a-whore! I’ll get our brothers and beat him to death!”

“No, brother! He deserves to suffer his whole life, just like Shimani does. I’ve got a plan that will punish him much worse than death.”

“What do you have in mind, Kakoli?”

“I need you to get something for me.”

“You have come..!”

“What else can I do? I don’t want to suffer the same hell as my sister.”

Anghal led her into the bedroom, and pushed her down on the bed.

“Wait! Not like this!”

“Are you trying to escape?”

“No, Anghal. But I want something better than this.”

“I don’t care what you want!”

“But I want to please you, Anghal. I want to be good to you, so that you will be kind to me. I’ve brought a bottle of jasmin oil to put over your skin. Won’t you let me show you that I can be good to you?”

“Jasmin oil? Show it to me!”

With trembling hands, Kakoli took a small, beautiful flask out of a pocket in her dress, and handed it over to Anghal. He opened it, and sniffed at the content.

“It IS jasmin oil,” he said.

He looked at her.

“Take off your clothes,” he said.

Kakoli obeyed, blushing. She had never stood naked in front of a man before.

“Now take off mine.”

With clumsy, inexperienced hands, she removed his clothes. He gave her the flask back, and lied down o his bed.

“Put the jasmin on my skin!” he ordered.

Kakoli poured a little oil in her hands, and rubbed her hands together to make it warm. She smeared it out over Anghal’s hairy chest, and worked it into his skin. Anghal grinned with pleasure, and put his hands under his head. He enjoyed seeing Shimani’s little sister being this humble. She probably hoped that je’d marry her if she was good to him, and save her from the disgrace of being unwed and not a virgin anymore. She’d be disappointed! he thought. He didn’t want anything but revenge on her family. He’d use her, and then send her back to her family, disgraced. And then he’d do the same thing to their youngest sister!

Kakoli poured more oil in her hands, and moved down his stomach. More oil. She rubbed it into his thighs with strong hands. He was getting hard, and enojyed thinking about how he would have his way with her later.

Kakoli picked up the flask again, and with one swiftmove, she poured it all over his groin, and splattered the last few drops over his face.

Anghal screamed like a dying animal when the liquid fire devoured his flesh and burned down to the bones. Kakoli threw the flask away.

“I switched the flasks,” she said, pulling her dress back on. “Now YOU will learn what it feels like to have battery acid thrown at you!”

“You’ll die for this!” Anghal panted.

“Probably,” said Kakoli. “But I don’t care what punishment I’ll get, it will be worth dying for, to know that you will suffer your whole life for what you did to my sister. They may kill me – but you will live a whole life being laughed at for not having all the things a man should have!”

Author’s Note: Bangladesh is rapidly earning the dubious distinction of having the largest number of acid attacks in the world. Only in 2001, more than 235 women reported to have had acid (sulphuric acid being the most common choice) thrown at them by rejected suitors or husbands who are angry for not being allowed to get whatever they want. Even little girls have been attacked, as a away of hurting the entire family. Battery acid is cheap, and easy to obtain. Very few are ever punished for this crime.

Look up Acid Survivors Foundation on the net, and do what you can to support our sisters in Bangladesh.