 Bangladesh:
Beena's Story
Duration: 10'50"
Produced by: Ron McCullagh
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"I think that it just goes beyond their comprehension that she could
not want him and if she doesn't, then he will destroy her face."
(Nasreen Haq, Campaigner)
There have been about 200 acid attacks in the last year in Bangladesh.
And they are on the increase. A year ago doctors were treating one to
two a month. Today they're treating one to two a week. It's a uniquely
cruel crime in a country where for most young girls, their prospects of
a reasonable life depend entirely on a good marriage and motherhood.
"Beena's Story" is a news feature which explains the appalling lack of
justice faced by hundreds of Bangladeshi women who have been attacked
by acid. Beena is seventeen. Since fourteen year-old Dano threw the
acid at her eighteen months ago, Beena has made the journey from a
teenager with prospects to a strong but scarred young woman whose
ambition now is to find work and survive. Dano remains free. Beena's
family suspect the police have been paid off. But why does the
government not act to stop the crime and why do the police seem
reluctant to prosecute the alleged attackers? The answer comes not from
the police but one of the plastic surgeons in Bangladesh's only Burns
Unit. "There is a law in our country, but the law is not applied to the
people who are throwing acid. Maybe the people who are throwing the
acid are very influential in society so the police, the law officers,
they cannot go to them and the poor victims, they are not getting any
help from their administration, from the police, I think so. That's why
the incidents are progressing more quickly in the absence of the law."
Most victims of acid attacks are young women and a group of them have
decided to go public and speak out against their treatment. As they
face a difficult and dangerous future, they show remarkable courage.
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