Women Victims: The Real Heroes of Acid Attack [SLIDESHOW]

Women are still victims of brutal assault in today's modern world. Most of them are attacked by their husbands and other male members of the family for reasons such as petty domestic altercations to more serious issues like bringing dishonor to the family. Violent assault in the form of acid attack is most common in many countries.

An acid attack victim finds herself badly disfigured, blind, deaf and disabled. In most of the rural victim's cases, the woman can no longer work or study, not due to her disabilities, but because of the perceived colossal dishonor she brings to her family.

It is widely believed in the male-dominated society that the woman usually provokes the attack herself by her flirtatious behavior or indecorous outspokenness. Further, a single woman who has suffered this tragedy, as a rule, has no chance of ever marrying and will be seen as an eternal burden to her family. And in some cases, if the victim is a married woman, her life becomes even worse. Not only does she have to continue living with the perpetrator, who is usually the husband or a male family member, but in many cases, her children too refuse to have any further contact with her.

According to Wikipedia, these attacks are most common in Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and a few other countries. According to statistics, 80 percent of victims of these acid attacks are female and almost 70 percent are under 18 years of age.

Recently, Pakistani filmmaker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy won her first Oscar for a 52-minute documentary 'Saving Face,' which talks about the suffering in the lives of two women in Pakistan, who are acid attack survivors, and their effort at bringing the attackers to justice. Chinoy hopes to raise a voice and bring about awareness of these monstrous acid attacks and the survivors through her short film.

We bring you a slideshow of acid attack victims around the world, who have survived and moved on.