Reshma Qureshi, a 19-year-old Indian acid attack survivor who also actively campaigns for the #EndAcidSale movement, on Thursday walked the runway at New York Fashion Week, in what she called a life-changing experience after wowing the audience with her catwalk and her beauty despite the acid attack.
Reshma’s estranged brother in-law attacked her with acid with the help of his friends who pinned her down in 2014 and she lost one of her eyes in the process.
After enduring numerous skin graft surgeries and contemplating suicide, she met the founder of Make Love Not Scars, a group that helps survivors of the gender-based crimes.
(Photo: Reuters)
Indian model and acid attack survivor Reshma Quereshi has make up applied before walking to present Indian designer Archana Kochhar’s Spring/Summer 2017 collections during New York Fashion Week in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
(Photo: Reuters/ Reshma Qureshi walking towards the runway.)
Model and acid attack victim Reshma Querishi models the Archana Kochhar collection during Fashion Week in New York, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
(Photo: Reuters/Reshma Qureshi presents a creation from designer Archana Kochhar’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection during New York Fashion Week.)
Model and acid attack victim Reshma Querishi models the Archana Kochhar collection during Fashion Week in New York, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
“People have the tendency to look at acid attack survivors from one perspective and I don’t want them to look at them like that anymore,” she told the AFP after the show.
“I feel really good and the experience was great,” she said in Hindi through a translator, according to The Guardian. I feel as though it has definitely changed my life. I do feel brave.”
Reshma who wore a cream and floral gown by Indian designer Archana Kochhar on Thursday also said
“I want to tell the world—do not see us in a weak light and see that even we can go out and do things,”
In India, an estimated 500 to 1,000 attacks take place each year, and while they rarely kill they leave severe physical, psychological and social scars that can see victims ostracized and hidden away.
