Women, Violence and Social Stigma: A Sociology of Burn Attacks

Book Details

• Author: L. Allen Furr

• Binding: Hardcover

• Pages: 160

• ISBN: 9788131609354

• Language: English

• Publication Year: 2018

• Sale Territory: India

• Publisher: Rawat Publications

About the Book

The agony of being burned alive is unimaginable, and for those who survive such a brutal assault, the pain continues for a lifetime. In India, the victims of this cruel and insidious act are primarily women, who are often attacked by their husbands. For survivors, life becomes dramatically different. They are left scarred and disfigured, sometimes beyond recognition, and subjected to social discrimination and mistreatment. These women are sometimes believed to possess evil supernatural powers and are stigmatized as pariahs.

The study presented in this book attempts to understand the sociological aspects of the lives of Indian women who have been attacked with fire by their husbands. Through data analysis, the study reveals that after a woman is burned, she undergoes two additional traumas. First, her identity is changed by society; she is no longer viewed as a woman, but as a "burned woman." Second, due to this dramatic and permanent change in identity, disfigured women are socially excommunicated and treated as outcasts.

This work seeks to explore why disfigurement stigma exists in India and how it affects the lives of these burned women, shedding light on their struggles and the social dynamics that follow such an assault.

Contents

1. Of Fire and Face: The Stigma of Facial Burns

2. The Meaning of Gender in India

3. Burning Women: Facts and Treatments

4. Stigma

5. Conclusions

About the Author

L. Allen Furr is a Professor of Sociology at Auburn University, USA. His research focuses on the sociology of health, with a particular emphasis on the psychosocial dynamics of facial disfigurement. He was part of the University of Louisville’s research team that pioneered facial transplantation. Dr. Furr’s recent work investigates the stigma experienced by women who are facially disfigured in India. His work spans sociology, psychiatry, medicine, nursing, and social work, and he has written several scholarly articles on gender and health issues in South Asia. He earned his doctorate in sociology from Louisiana State University and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2005 to teach at Punjabi University, Patiala, India.