This Doc Fights for Women in Columbia’s Acid Attack Epidemic
Wesley Tomaselli /
OZY
Colombia, a place perceived by some as a once-violent country that’s moving past decades of armed conflict with a fresh peace accord, is seeing other barbaric forms of human rights violations emerge. Multiple victims of these acid attacks see them as a show of power that men in hypermacho societies feel they possess over women. There are approximately 100 attacks each year in Colombia, according to U.K.-based Acid Survivors Trust International, putting the country second behind Pakistan, with at least 160 attacks. But considering that the South American country has only 48 million residents compared with Pakistan’s 199 million, Colombia’s per capita rate of attack is twice that of Pakistan’s.