France - 4 American women attacked with acid in Marseille, 17 Sept 2017

The spokeswoman said the suspect did not yell any out any terror-linked threats. She said there were no immediate indications that the attack was terror-related but added officials can’t rule out terror links at such an early stage of the investigation.

Marseille is a port city in southern France that is closer to Barcelona than Paris.

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dotr said:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...th-acid-in-marseille-train-station/674863001/

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The incident is not believed to be terror-related. The attacker, described by police as a mentally unstable 41-year-old woman, has been arrested.

The report says she remained at the site after the attack, and showed photographs of herself with burns.

[h=2]Acid attacks around the world:[/h]

• In Britain the problem has become so acute there have been calls for parliament to act. One such attack was caught on camera in London last month
• In Berlin at the beginning of this year there was a series of acid attacks on women
• A former Miss Italy finalist has also been attacked

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Ian Jack These cruel assaults are more often linked to patriarchal societies. But in Britain, where sulphuric acid was first manufactured, cases are once again on the rise

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The total number of victims of acid violence is hard to estimate, even roughly, but there are thousands every year and women are disproportionately affected almost everywhere. The nations with the highest recorded levels include Colombia, Uganda, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, with the south Asian countries in particular producing unforgettable images of disfigured women who have been assaulted with acid because they have rejected sexual advances or marriage proposals, or aroused jealousy, or in some way or other inconvenienced the patriarchy and aroused its ire. Think of the process: the quiet purchase of a small bottle of sulphuric acid; the assailant’s hand clutching it in his jacket pocket; the bottle’s quick retrieval, the cap flipped off; the intended victim’s puzzled look as what appears to be water hits her face; the seconds of confusion before the scream. How can anyone do it? To pull a gun or a knife would surely be less heartless and depraved. What the acid-thrower intends is to ruin a human face for ever – to satisfy his grievance, to make his target lonely and suicidal, and to demonstrate to others the consequences of her alleged misdeeds.

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As the 19th century wore on, the crime developed a name: vitriolage. Despoliation prompted by jealousy and rejection was often the motive. Women threw it at other women, men at men, men at women, and women at men. It was common enough, as late as 1938, for Graham Greene to have his sinister protagonist Pinkie carry a small bottle of acid in Brighton Rock. (“He took the cork out and spilled a little on the wooden plank of the pier; it hissed like steam.&#8221 Only later in the last century did the crime begin to be associated with the developing rather than the developed rather than the developed world, as a function of male oppression and feudalism, rather than the green-eyed cruelty of richer societies.

A final, frightening irony is this. Britain, the country that more or less invented vitriol, now has a growing incidence of acid violence that, according to Jaf Shah of the London-based charity Acid Survivors Trust International, may give it one of the highest per capita rates in the world. In 2015, the police recorded at least 408 incidents [paywall] where a corrosive or noxious material was used as a weapon; the figure for the first six months of last year was 340. Official records collected since 2010 do not include the ethnicity of most perpetrators and victims, but do tell us that most are men. Of those whose ethnicity was recorded, a majority were white. Savagery knows no cultural boundaries.

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dotr said:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/11/acid-attacks-victorian-britain
Feb 11 2017

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[h=3]Gender[/h]An accurate estimate of the gender ratio of victims and perpetrators is difficult to establish because many acid attacks are not reported or recorded by authorities. According to a 2010 study in The Lancet, there are "no reliable statistics" on the prevalence of acid attacks in Pakistan.[SUP][57][/SUP]
A 2007 literature review analyzed 24 studies in 13 countries over the past 40 years, covering 771 cases.[SUP][12][/SUP] In the cases studied, men were more frequently victims in every country, with the exception of Bangladesh and Taiwan, with a male/female ratio ranging from 0.15:1 in Bangladesh to 6.14:1 in the UK. However, according to the London-based charity Acid Survivors Trust International 60 percent of acid attacks are on women, and acid assaults are grossly under-estimated. In some regions, assaults perpetrated on female victims by males are often driven by the mentality "If I can't have you, no one shall."[SUP][58][/SUP]

In Bangladesh, throwing acid has been labeled as a "gender crime", as there is a dominance of female victims who are assaulted by males, for the reason of refusing to marry, or refusing sexual advances from male perpetrators[SUP][59][/SUP] In Jamaica, women throwing acid on other women in relation to fights over male partners is a common cause.[SUP][59][/SUP] In the UK, the majority of victims are men, and many of these attacks are related to gang violence.[SUP][24][/SUP]

Another factor that puts victims at increased risk for an acid assault is their socioeconomic status, as those living in poverty are more likely to be attacked.[SUP][33][/SUP][SUP][18][/SUP] As of 2013, the three nations with the most noted incidence of acid attacks – Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia – were ranked 75th, 101st, and 104th, respectively, out of 136 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index, a scale that measures equality in opportunities between men and women in nations.[SUP][60][/SUP]

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[h=3]USA[/h]Victor Riesel was a broadcast journalist, specializing in labor issues, who was attacked while leaving Lindy's restaurant in midtown Manhattan in the early morning of 5 April 1956.[SUP][110][/SUP][SUP][111][/SUP] Riesel was left blind as a result.[SUP][110][/SUP] The attack was motivated by Riesel's reporting on the influence of organized crime on certain corrupt labor unions.[SUP][110][/SUP]

In 1959, American attorney Burt Pugach hired a man to throw lye in the face of his ex-girlfriend Linda Riss. Riss suffered blindness and permanent scarring. Pugach served 14 years in prison for the incident.[SUP][112][/SUP]

Gabrielle White, a 22-year-old single mother living in Detroit, was attacked on 26 August 2006 by a stranger.[SUP][113][/SUP] She was left with third and fourth degree burns on her face, throat, and arms, leaving her blind and without one ear.[SUP][113][/SUP] She also miscarried her unborn child.[SUP][113][/SUP] In early 2007, Kamilat Mehdi, a 21-year-old woman, was attacked with acid in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, badly disfiguring her face.[SUP][114][/SUP] A 25-year-old nursing student at Merritt College was the victim of an acid attack.[SUP][115][/SUP]

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