The War Against Women

Nicholas Kristof has highlighted the acid-attack war against Pakistani women . It's a war stretching from Afghanistan through Cambodia that is prosecuted by husbands, rejected suitors and even their own brothers and fathers. The video clip that he narrates vividly illustrates this war which is not generally acknowledged or covered in the western press. Kristof notes that there have been more than 7800 acid-burnings of women in the Islamabad area since 1994.

And just this last month in Afghanistan, "men on motorcycles threw acid on a group of girls who dared to attend school. One of the girls, a 17-year-old named Shamsia, told reporters from her hospital bed: "I will go to my school even if they kill me. My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies."" There's more video on that attack from CNN.

Watch the video, read Kristof's article and consider what you might do for the Progressive Women's Association (www.pwaisbd.org) or Women for Afghan Women group.