Iranians want answers and action after a spate of acid attacks on women

Soheila Jowrkesh, a 27-year-old woman from the central Iranian city of Isfahan, was driving when her phone rang. She pulled her car to the side of the road, rolled down her window and took the call.

As she chatted with her mother, a motorbike stopped alongside her car. "Something splashed in my face," she recalled in an interview with Iranian state TV from her hospital bed. "It burned. It burned so badly."

That liquid that splashed across her face was acid. Soheila lost one eye and will likely lose sight in the other. Her face, neck and body was disfigured.

"I want to know why me," she said, "Why did this happen to me?"

The attack on Soheila has left the residents of her town in shock and disbelief, but it was only one of a series of such attacks on women in Isfahan over the past couple of months. The police have confirmed at least eight similar cases have taken places.

Thousands of people responded on Wednesday with protests in the streets in Isfahan and Tehran, calling for more security. "Isfahan is my home and I have the right to feel safe at my home," one chant went. Others demanded the police take quick action and arrest the perpetrators.

Many Iranians also took the matter to social media. One artist posted a photo of a woman wearing a motorbike helmet with the words "anti-acid" written on top. Pictures of the victims were posted and re-posted accompanied by the hashtag #AcidAttacks.

Some of the anger is pointed toward a law that was passed in the parliament last Sunday. It protects people who take it upon themselves to correct others they feel are not modestly dressed. The protesters say such lawes embolden people to become violent.

Officials argue that the recent attacks have nothing to do with modesty and those who try to implement it. But for now, regardless of the motivations behind the attacks, people in Isfahan simply say they want the police to protect them and their families.