Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-tsvsl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-30T15:51:19.753Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - ‘We Will Work Harder to be Our Own Boss’: Children, Vulnerability and Structural Violence

from Part I - Shaping Childhood in South Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2016

Elora Halim Chowdhury
Affiliation:
Studies at University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Bina D'Costa
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Get access

Summary

Acid attacks, a form of gendered violence, have been reported in many parts of the world with high prevalence in South and Southeast Asian countries of India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. It affects women disproportionately and is often a manifestation of gender and power inequalities. It involves perpetrators throwing acid onto the bodies and faces of the victims. Though a crime mostly perpetrated by men, in Cambodia women constitute nearly half of all perpetrators – a point to which the author will return later in the chapter. These attacks are planned and premeditated with the intent to disfigure but not necessarily to kill. Hydrochloric, sulphuric or nitric acid are commonly available in various businesses at very low cost. The damage to the body is extreme and often irreversible. The health and emotional consequences are devastating. While these attacks are on the rise in both Cambodia and India, law and advocacy campaigns have been more successful in curbing numbers and providing targeted services to survivors in Bangladesh. While patriarchal culture is frequently cited as the primary cause underlying violence against women, in this chapter, the author draws upon life trajectory analysis and a structural lens to illuminate the layered dimensions of gender-based violence and vulnerability. Furthermore, she deploys a transnational feminist analysis, which illuminates the far-reaching relations of domination and resistance in every day narratives of violence.

Life Trajectory and Vulnerability

The film Finding Face provides a clear narration of Tat Marina's story. The story begins on 5 December 1999, when Khoun Sophal, wife of Svay Sitha, a senior official of the Cambodian Government, orchestrated and led an acid attack on Tat Marina – a 16 year-old singer/actor. The attack took place in broad daylight in Phnom Penh at a busy market place near Marina's home. Khoun Sophal, accompanied by a gang of young men with guns, arrived in two cars. Marina was first beaten unconscious by the young men, one of whom, Khoun Vandy, Khoun Sophal's 21 year old nephew, then grabbed a can of acid from one of the waiting cars and poured it on Marina's face and upper body, causing severe burns on 45 per cent of her body. No one dared to intervene because the surrounding crowd was well aware of Khoun Sophal's identity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Children and Violence
Politics of Conflict in South Asia
, pp. 62 - 83
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×