Corrosive hate

Calls are growing for the police in Long Island, New York, to investigate last month's vicious acid attack on a Pakistani-American university student as a hate crime. Nafiah Ikram, a medical student at Hofstra University, had just gotten out of her car after returning home from campus when an unidentified man threw a cup of acid at her in the driveway of her family home. The attack left her disfigured and partially blinded. Her parents were also injured while trying to help her.

While activists groups are pushing for a hate crimes investigation, her father, Sheikh Ikram, believes it was a targeted attack, but not necessarily a hate crime. "The reason I think it is not a hate crime, why did they not throw on my wife?" he told a local news channel, explaining that his wife, who works as a nurse, had just entered the house a little earlier.

But with all due respect to her father, we believe that this attack should be considered a hate crime, even if not in the 'traditional' sense. Whether or not it was motivated by race or religion, we know that gender was a clear factor. Acid attackers are often motivated by an intent to disfigure and ruin lives, rather than end them. Attackers want their victim to suffer, not just in the moment, but for the rest of their lives or whatever perceived slight. To us, that is hate in its purest form.

The outpouring of outrage and media attention has led to increased efforts by the local community and police to find the attacker. It also helped that Sheikh Ikram is a personal chauffeur for Indian-American model and TV show host Padma Lakshmi. Lakshmi's appeal for help was viewed over 500,000 times on Instagram and other social media and helped draw broader media attention to the attack.

Nafiah says she has no idea who could have attacked her, adding that she "never had issues where...I rejected someone and they wanted to hurt me." Despite her injuries, she says the love of her family, friends, and neighbours is helping her heal. "People who I haven't spoken to in years are here to support me and show me love, so that really, really helps.”