7 Pakistani Women Burned in Acid Attacks in the Last 2 Days

Seven women were admitted to hospital burn units across Pakistan within a two-day period after separate acid attacks — a grim burst of violence that human rights organizations said fit patterns they had documented for years in a country where acid attacks are used to punish women perceived to have violated social norms.

Acid attacks in Pakistan occur in contexts like rejected marriage proposals, family disputes over property, and reprisals against women who seek education, employment, or public life in ways that threaten the authority of men who believe it belongs to them. The attacks are especially cruel because the injuries are usually not fatal but permanently disfiguring — destroying faces and bodies in ways that can effectively end a victim's participation in public life.

Pakistan criminalized acid attacks under legislation passed in 2011, with penalties including life imprisonment. Enforcement has been inconsistent, conviction rates low, and the social conditions that produce the attacks — impunity, gender hierarchy, and inadequate victim support — largely unchanged by the legal framework.

Survivor advocacy groups have documented that many victims never report attacks, either from fear of retaliation or because they expect the legal system to fail them. Those who do report face a difficult process in which social pressure frequently works against them.

International human rights organizations, including Acid Survivors Trust International, have called on Pakistan to improve prosecution rates and invest in survivor support — medical treatment, psychological services, and economic assistance for women whose injuries keep them from working.