Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
55031227
label
Bangladesh
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
55031227
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Bangladesh
citationUrl
collections
Records of the First Lady's Office (Clinton Administration)
Melanne Verveer's Subject Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
55031227
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
otherTitles
2068127-20130534S-060-003-2022
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
7caeb9665c84bf9f
ocrText
THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN
3-17-00
Saway \
File Bangladesh
Deborah Kent
can us do (seey
10105 Walker Woods Drive
anythey about this
Great Falls, Virginia 22066
(703) 757-4671
By
copied
Berger
February 22, 2000
NSC W. Wing
President William J. Clinton
The White House
Desk
Washington, DC
Verver
Padesta
Dear President Clinton:
At the suggestion of Dr. James French, I am writing to call your attention to a truly horrifying situation that
currently exists in Bangladesh. Every year hundreds of young girls become the victims of sulfuric acid burns
inflicted upon them as acts of revenge by men whose advances they have spurned or who are involved in dowry or
property disputes. Many of these girls die due to their injuries; those that survive are left blind, deaf, or horribly
and permanently disfigured. Shame and embarrassment force them to spend the rest of their lives in hiding. Many
are rejected even by their families and have no choice but to become street beggars.
The medical facilities in Bangladesh to care for these girls are woefully inadequate. There are only eight
beds for female burn patients in the only public hospital in the country. The cost of treatment is prohibitively
expensive for all but a few of the victims.
Recently I approached Dr. French with this story and he and Fairfax Inova Hospital very generously agreed
to perform the reconstructive surgery required to give one of these girls a chance at a normal life. While I am
enormously grateful to them and very excited about the difference they will make in at least one girl's life, I know
that bringing these girls abroad for medical treatment is not the answer to the problem. The answer, of course, is to
stop the attacks from occurring in the first place.
In spite of international outrage, the incidence of these crimes increases every year. Yet very few of the
attackers are punished. In a society that places little importance on women's lives, destroying a young girl's face
has become almost socially acceptable.
President Clinton, some of these girls are as young as 11 years old. At one time they all not only had
beautiful faces, but dreams and ambitions and hopes for their future. Many of them speak about the plans they had
to go to college, start their own business, or even become Olympic athletes. Through no fault of their own, those
dreams have been taken away from them and their lives have been destroyed.
Knowing that you will be traveling to Bangladesh in March, I felt compelled to write to you and ask you to
do anything you can to bring more attention to this situation, as well as to encourage the authorities in that country
to put an end to these barbaric acts.
I am not an expert on this subject and I am not directly involved with any of the organizations that have
been established to help these burn victims. But the pictures of these girls have continued to haunt me since I first
became aware of the situation several months ago and I would like to do whatever I can to help.
The enclosed information tells this story much more convincingly than I can. I hope you'll take just a few
minutes to read it.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Deborah Kent
In Bangladesh, Acid Ruins Women's Faces And Their Dreams
By Uli Schmetzer
DHAKA, Bangladesh - In a burn ward crowded with rusty cots and blood-stained linen, the acid-ravaged
faces of women who dared to say no to men are hidden behind a swath of bandages. Bangladesh, an
impoverished nation heavily sustained by international funding, has done little to stop jilted males from
hurling sulfuric acid into the faces of women who offended their sense of machismo and their credo that
men have rights over women.
The wave of acid-throwing began about seven years ago and coincided with a new thrust by women in
Bangladesh to assert their rights. The women had help from micro-credits that offered them economic
independence and a chance to reject marriage proposals in a society where women were traditionally
passed from father to husband as serfs.
"There are no official statistics, but over 200 acid mutilations are recorded by the media in Bangladesh
every year," said plastic surgeon Dr. Samanta Lal Sen. "Many cases are not made public because the
girls are afraid to go to the authorities or the case is settled between families and the police."
The case of Ambia Khatun is typical. She recalls it was shortly before midnight when she was awakened
by the noise of men cutting through the walls of her bamboo hut outside the town of Mymensingh.
An instant later came the scorching pain as acid splashed into her face, hurled by an elderly man whose
marriage proposal she had turned down. Khatun's face was burned and she was blinded for life. Some of
the acid splashed on to her two small sons who are now with her in a hospital, scarred for life.
The boys, ages 4 and 6, had clung to their mother, a 30-year-old widow, crying as the assailant burst
through the wall.
John Morrison, a consultant for UNICEF said the problem is so serious it merits international attention.
"It's something that is kept quiet in Bangladesh. Some people are arrested, others are not. We want the
government to take this seriously. It has become so bad one of the latest victims was a 12-year-old girl."
On a Muslim holiday this month, Dr. Sen was moving through the burn ward of the Dhaka Medical
College Hospital, pointing out that the gauze bandages on his patients' faces were old and should have
been changed long ago. But gauze is in short supply, he explained. Worse, he said, he does not have the
equipment to perform skin grafts, and that means an increase in infections.
His patients lie very still and very much alone. All of them once had dreams, ambitions, small business
ventures and even scholarships. Now, unless their rural families have mercy on them, their destiny is to
become street beggars.
"I'm better off dead. What use am I now to anyone?" said Khatun. "If I testify against this man, his family
may kill me or kill my children. But I will testify. He must be punished."
She speaks with great effort through a mouth grotesquely twisted by the acid. Tears trickle from one
empty eye socket; the other eye catches only a gray shimmer of light.
Bangladeshis refer to the barbarities as "these unfortunate incidents." Officials belittle the scope of the
problem and attribute the cases to "ignorant men in backward parts of the country."
The stories behind the barbarities are similar. The voice of Sufia Akther comes through gauze bandages
covering a face that was once beautiful, with its large lively eyes that will never see again. Sufia is 20 and
had just been accepted at college, a major achievement for a poor village girl from Lakshipur, 200 miles
north of Dhaka. Her great ambition was to become an agronomist.
"Now she'll probably end up as a beggar," Sen whispered.
Sufia was an accidental victim. The youth who tossed a pitcher of sulfuric acid through her bedroom
window at 3 in the morning wanted to punish her sister Helen, 21, who had turned down his marriage
proposal.
"Helen and I sleep in the same bed. I heard the noise and sat up. The acid hit me," said the voice below
the bandages.
The youth who allegedly committed the crime has been detained, but is free on bail.
"Many cases are pending but there are few convictions. Usually the police try to convince or intimidate the
woman to withdraw her case," said Salma Ali, a human-rights lawyer with the Association of Women
Lawyers. She provides legal aid to eight of the victims.
"The police know who the attackers are but often won't arrest them. Even if the case goes to court, it
takes years for a conviction," Ali said.
Bangladeshi law gives judges the right to impose sentences from 8 years to life imprisonment for acid
throwers. Only one man has been sentenced to life, in 1995.
There is not much left of Payara Begum's face. She still moans with pain. The wounds refuse to heal.
The acid thrower was the tutor of Begum's two children. A married woman, she indignantly rejected the
tutor's advances and last month, in broad daylight, he tossed a can filled with acid over her.
"My husband is a good man. He comes to visit me. I hope he won't leave me now," Begum whispered.
In a country where men have the right to as many as four wives, the husband often marries a second wife
if the first becomes old, ill or incapacitated.
Both lawyers and doctors agree the acid-throwing fad is a tragic byproduct of a gender revolution. In
years past, men doused disobedient wives with kerosene and set them afire.
"Then, suddenly, these barbarians graduated to acid-throwing which, from a medical point of view, is far
more destructive than kerosene burns," said Dr. Sen.
The phenomenon has taken on bizarre proportions. UNICEF's Morrison found out that the 12-year-old girl
who had acid tossed into her face was mutilated over a land deal.
"The acid throwers figured the medical costs of caring for the girl would eliminate the rival family as
competitors for the purchase of a piece of land," he said.
Some of the disfigured women, like Jamara Khatun, have been fortunate. She was one of a dozen
women treated by a team of Italian plastic surgeons from the Italian branch of INTERPLASTIC, a
worldwide group of Good Samaritans who came to Dhaka for two weeks last year with all their equipment
and operated on some of Sen's patients. They produced amazing results in restructuring some of the
devastated faces. Another six girls were taken to Spain for treatment by Spanish plastic surgeons.
But what Bangladesh really needs is equipment that allows surgeons like Sen to apply at home the skills
he acquired in Germany, Austria and Britain.
Said the irate doctor, who has seen more pain than he cares to remember, "If we really want to stop the
acid throwers, the law must impose exemplary punishment. The men who do this should be hung in a
public square, and I personally would like to throw some acid in their faces so they'll know what it feels
like."
Even a doctor's oath to respect human life has its limits. (Chicago Tribune Foreign Correspondent
January 31, 1999)
Teen Launches Crusade
to Stop Acid Attacks
Slide
Against Women in
Show
Bangladesh
CLICK
Doctors gave Bina Akhter
three years to live after
being attacked. That was
three years ago. Today,
after eight operations, her
face has evolved into
patchwork of skin grafts
and scars. She still suffers
from headaches so severe
she can hardly stand. (ABCNEWS)
Before the Attack
A photograph taken
of Bina Akhter before
a man threw acid on
her face and instantly
shattered many of her
dreams. (ABCNEWS)
Namita Text
Page 1 of 2
Namita
Namita's attack took place in 1985. Her father and his brothers had
enmity with this family in their home village. The enmity was so great that
there had been numerous incidences of violence with grievous injuries.
Her uncles moved to Calcutta to escape this violence and feud. Only her
father remained in Bangladesh but he moved to the city to teach at a
school there.
One man from that family also came to live in that city. He befriended
Namita's father and Namita's innocent father thought that the past was
forgotten. But actually this man was secretly plotting revenge. He planned
to throw acid at Namita's father. While he waited for Namita's father to
come back from school he saw Namita coming. Quickly he changed his
strategy. He thought it would be better to hurt the daughter, as it would
effect the father more. For what could be more painful for the father than
to see his daughter in such a state and be powerless to do anything
about it.
He poured the acid over Namita's head. "I thought that it had started to
rain. My books fell on the ground. My watch also fell and it started to melt.
Even the place where the acid fell on the street started to melt. I put my
hands on my face and my hands started melting too. I remember my
father rushing to me and people around me shouting, "The girl won't live."
I don't remember anything else. I woke up in the hospital."
Her eyes gradually deteriorated and six months later the doctors had to
take them out.
But Namita's story is also a story of success, of fighting with life and
emerging victorious.
"An Italian missionary helped me immensely. He practically dragged me
to a blind school and forced me to start living again. I later got my S.S.C.
from a normal school and got my H.S.C. from Lalmatia College and also
received my BA from there."
Namita is now teaching at The Blind School for Girls in Mirpur and is also
staying in the school premises.
"Do you know President Ershad came to see me on three occasions and
asked what he could do for me? I said, "Nothing, because, can anybody
give me back my former life?"
http://earthhealing.com/bigheart/Namitatext.html
2/17/2000
fro Banfelen
United States Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
January 10, 1995
Ms. Melanne Verveer
Office of the First Lady
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Ms. Verveer: milanne 994
I have attached a list of NGO's in Bangladesh as you
requested, divided into categories such as those receiving USG
funding. As you see there are a few more than several of them.
Meanwhile, we should shortly have possible schedules in
Nepal and Sri Lanka. To make travel to all five countries work,
an itinerary which starts in Pakistan and carries on to India,
Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, or just the reverse, best
addresses the combination of long distances and the Friday
Islamic weekend.
Sincerely yours,
Lim
Acting Timothy M. Carney
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for South Asian Affairs
NGO's IN BANGLADESH
A. U.S. NGOS Receiving USAID Funding:
Private Agencies Collaborating Together (Pact)
Care
Pathfinder fund (does family planning)
The Asia Foundation
Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception
Helen Keller International
Asisn-American free Labor Institute
National Democratic Institute
International Executive Service Corps
Population Council
Population Services International
Save The Children
Salvation Army World Service Office
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
Aga Khan Foundation
World Vision Relief and Development
World Relief Corporation
B. Other U.S. NGOS in Bangladesh:
Ford Foundation
Adventist Development and Relief Agency
The Hunger Project
Food for The Hungry International
Ashoka
International Voluntary Services (IVS)
YMCA
Mennonite Central Committee
Winrock
Friends of Bangladesh (builds orphanages, schools)
Assemblies of God Mission
Association of Baptists
Bangladesh Mission (Foreign mission board of the - Southern
Baptist Convention)
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
Holy Cross Missionaries
International Christian Fellowship
Presbyterian Fellowship
World Mission Prayer League
Bangladesh Lutheran Mission
(Note: most American missionary groups are involved in health
or relief work or education)
- 2 -
C. Local NGOS receiving significant USG assistance (over
$100,000 a year):
Concerned Women for Family Planning
Association of Development Agencies Bangladesh
Family Planning Association of Bangladesh
Graneen Trust
Jatio Torun Shangha (family planning)
Unity through Population Services
Center for Development Services (family planning)
Bangladesh Assoc. for Maternal and Neo-Natal Health
Family Development services
Polli Sishu Foundation (family planning)
Rural Family Welfare Project
Sopiret (family planning)
Swarniver (family planning)
Shamantik (family planning)
Family Planning Services and Training Center
D. Dhaka based international organization receiving
significant USG assistance (over $100,000 a year):
International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research/Bangladesh
(Cholera Research, including Oral Rehydration Therapy; family
planning)