Thread by @skarlamangla

I wrote about some of the bravest women I've ever met: acid attack survivors. Their stories were stunning, and I've tried to do them justice.

latimes.com/world/asia/la-…

These women were attacked by their relatives, or by men who they rejected. Some had acid thrown on them by strangers. These attacks are a particularly cruel form of violence, intended to disfigure and shame women. The thinking is often, 'If I can't have you, no one can.'

And the perpetrators roam free! One women whose husband threw acid on her STILL lives with him. Another told me that her attacker showed up to her wedding. The reasons why these men go unpunished are sometimes complicated, but usually it's just the patriarchy doing its thing.

I also wrote a little behind-the-scenes thing about how I found this story while on vacation in India and my first impressions of the cafe: latimes.com/local/californ…

I've thought a lot about why acid attacks don't happen that much in the US, and I think it's because of the availability of guns. Here, the impulse to hurt someone is carried out with a gun. Without guns, people turn to acid. What's constant, depressingly, is the desire to harm.