Weekend picture (the kind that remains with you)

While most of the world is concerned with terrorism at large, personalized terrorism continues...

This piece of news from 2001...

India has stepped up police patrols in Indian-administered Kashmir to prevent acid attacks on women who do not follow the Islamic dress code. Dozens of armed women officers are also guarding girls schools and colleges in the capital, Srinagar, where two women who were not wearing veils were sprayed with acid earlier in the week. A group called Lashkar-e-Jabbar, has claimed responsibility.

This piece of news from 2008...

The police in Kandahar Province arrested 10 Taliban militants they said were involved in an attack this month on a group of Afghan schoolgirls whose faces were doused with acid, officials in Kandahar said Tuesday.

By the way, while we are on the subject of hard line militant groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba has been implicated indirectly in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai...

From here: Acid attacks and wife burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies. Naeema Azar (who was a successful real estate agent prior to being attacked that left her blind and terribly disfigured), above, was attacked by her husband after they divorced. Her 12-year-old son, Ahmed Shah, looks after her.

From here: When a woman is seen as property, her only real worth is what she can provide to her husband, including dowry, sex, children. If she is left by her husband, whether divorced or abandoned; especially in a country where her movements are heavily restricted unless she has a male to escort her; her only chance for a "good life" involves marrying someone else. The chances of this happening are almost nil if her face has been disfigured.