Facing Up: Acid Attacks in Colombia by Betty Laura Zapata

Public Story

Facing Up: Acid Attacks in Colombia

Copyright Betty Laura Zapata 2024

Date of Work Jan 2014 - Dec 2017

Updated Dec 2019

Location Colombia

Topics Abuse, Documentary, Domestic Violence, Fear, Human Rights, Latin America, Photography, Photojournalism, Portraiture, Spotlight, Violence, Womens Rights

Acid Attacks In Colombia amplifies the voice of women surviving from acid attacks and it aims to gain public and political attention needed to affect changes in the law and societal attitudes towards this crime against women. This project offers an intimate view into the complexity of the life-changing and detrimental consequences of acid attacks on women such as undergoing extensive surgery, living in perpetual fear, fighting to bring attackers to justice, and their struggles to find a new place in society.

Commonly associated with South Asian countries and communities, this crime is limited by neither geography or culture. According to The Legal Medicine Institute, more than 1000 attacks have been recorded in the last decade in Colombia, by far the highest in the continent. Rarely reported by mainstream media, the victims' voices are often ignored.

Published in The New York Times, Vanity Fair

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