Burnt, not broken: Resilience of the face of anti-acid activist

Neha Saini
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, March 24

She was 17 when she became a victim of one of the most gruesome crimes against women. As the youngest among the four siblings, she was pampered and protected. But on May 19, 2014, nothing could save her from her brother-in-law, who, along with three others, threw acid on her while she was on her way to appear for an exam. Five years on, Reshma Bano Qureshi has become the face of the fight against acid attacks and violence against women.

The 23-year-old brave woman was in Amritsar to speak about her biography Being Reshma at the literature and culture festival at Majha House, along with her co-author Tanya Singh.

“I call myself and many like me as survivors. The first and foremost thing we talk about as survivors is changing the social stigma around the acid attack victims. The attack on me was not intended for me. My brother-in-law had planned to throw acid on my sister, his estranged wife. The fact that he thought he would get away with this is scary and what encourages many more like him,” she said while narrating her story.

Reshma’s road to recovery took a while, and a lot of her mental and physical being. All through, her family stood firmly by her side. “It was tough to face people, to look into the mirror. But once I met Ria Sharma, founder of ‘Make Love Not Scars’ foundation, I found guardian angel,” she said. Since then, Reshma has become the first acid attack survivor to walk the ramp at New York Fashion Week and she started a campaign called Make Up Tips with Reshma, posting videos with message on banning the sale of acid. Her tell-all book ‘Being Reshma’ is getting a great response. Tania Singh, co-author of book and one of the members of Make Love, Not Scars, said that the idea is to break the cycle of victim-shaming and blaming.

Every survivor of acid attack or any other gender-based violence is blamed for her condition. Our social fabric is so stained with bias and stigma that we do not allow the victims to move on. That has to change. A technocrat, who quit a lucrative career to work with the acid attack survivors, Tania said that they are looking to rehabilitate the survivors and help them move on in life.

“Most burn injuries due to acid attacks intensify and result in death in some cases due to lack of proper and immediate medical attention. Also, bystanders too do not come forward to help the victims. There are several challenges towards ensuring that acid attacks stop and strict legislation is passed.”