BENGALURU: As the likes of Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren get busy with preparations for the New York Fashion with their top models, 19-year-old Reshma Bano Qureshi spends restless hours waiting for her US visa to arrive.
An acid attack survivor from Mumbai, Qureshi was chosen by fashion production firm FTL Moda to appear at the bi-annual style frenzy.
She is scheduled to walk the runway on September 8 in two shows.
At the age of 17, Qureshi's brother-in-law attacked her with sulfuric acid as his friends pinned her down, disfiguring her face and body. She lost one of her eyes.
“I am determined to live my own life. I've grown out of the ghosts of my pasts and I see myself living my life out loud now,” she says.
Qureshi works with Make Love Not Scars (MLNS), an NGO focused on providing acid attack victims with an opportunity to live life on their own terms.
“Yes, I survived through a very painful phase, but no one can take the right of living life on my own terms away from me,” says a determined Qureshi.
She gushes at the mention of the fashion week . “I've never done a catwalk. I don’t know what they have planned or what will go down. I hope a professional teaches me how to walk the ramp once I reach New York,” she says.
She is the face of a campaign to end open sale of acid in the country and is also a vlogger who appears in YouTube videos offering beauty tips and DIY make-up tutorials.
Bengaluru-based acid attack survivor Rekha went through a similar journey as Qureshi and is now being helped by MLNS to lead a life on her own after her partner threw acid at her three years ago while she was sleeping with her two-year-old daughter.
A native of Guttal in the Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district in Karnataka, she now lives at an ashram — RVM foundation — in Chikkagubbi in the city.
After the attack, her parents suffered from depression and coudn't bear the pain of her disfigured face. Her father passed away in 2013, following which her mother stopped eating and died nine days later.
“More than any first aid, medication or surgery, I feel we need to stress on counselling for the family of a victim. I craved for emotional support while I was at the hospital,” she says.
MLNS and her lawyers have set up regular therapy sessions with a city-based psychiatrist. “I am happy and in a healthy mental state now. Seeing a psychiatrist has helped me get out of depression,” she says.
My lawyers and MLNS are also funding her five-year-old daughter's education.
“All I want right now is justice. I had filed the case against him (attacker) three years ago. My lawyers tell me the court will close the case in a month. I don't wish upon a monetary compensation. I pray he is punished for what he has done to me. He should at least experience 25% of the pain that I went through,” she says.
According to Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), India has one of the highest rates of acid violence in the world, yet a backlog of criminal cases means it can take up to a decade for courts to reach a judgment and most victims receive no compensation.
Globally, there are as many as 1,500 recorded acid attacks each year with more than 1,000 cases estimated to occur in India alone.
However, many attacks go unreported because victims are too afraid of reprisals to come forward, according to a research by J Sagar Associates, India.