Woman Disfigured By Acid Attack Commits Suicide

A Pakistani woman who became the disfigured face of the shunned and forgotten women of Pakistan committed suicide, jumping from her sixth floor apartment window in Italy.

Fakhra Yunus was only 22 when her husband of three years, Bilal Khar, a member of the country’s politically elite Khar family, allegedly attacked her while she slept, the Asian Correspondent reported.

When Yunus and Khar met, she had been working as a prostitute, and the two soon married in 1998.

But almost immediately, Khar allegedly began abusing her, according to reports. She suffered through almost three years of abuse before she ran away. Khar soon located he and allegedly attacked her with acid in 2000. Khar has not been arrested and maintains his innocence.

The Washington Post noted that Yunus became the face of violence against women in the country after Pakistani activist Tehmina Durrani, author of “My Feudal Lord,” helped Yunus escape to Rome and get treatment for her disfigurement. Durrani is known to speak out against the injustices women face in Muslim society. Over the years, Yunus underwent 38 facial reconstructive and plastic surgeries after the attack.

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