The final burn

Amarjot Kaur

What could possibly be uglier than an intellectually crippled perspective of beauty? Defying the unfashionable conventions that define the fashion industry, acid-attack survivors, not models, brought a breath of fresh air to the ramp that celebrates the spirit of womanhood. 

Organised by Royal Aura Events, city-based NGO I Am Still Human and GID Planners, with the support of Rakesh Kumar Rekhi, ‘Kadam Ek Pehal- Women of Worth Awards’ held the World’s first Poetry Fashion Walk in Chandigarh on Saturday. 

This is also the first time that Chandigarh witnessed the first ever Acid attack survivor’s ramp walk. Five acid-attack survivors from Lucknow and Agra walked the ramp, with ‘poetry’ being recited in the background. 

Confident call

From Lucknow Acid attack survivors- Farah and Kunti were there and from Agra Ruqaiya participated. Mrs Punjaban 2017, Gurleen Puri, also honoured the acid-attack survivors for their courage. 

Farah, an acid attack survivor from Lucknow said, “I was attacked by my husband in 2011 after I had filed for a divorce. He was an abusive man. I am blind in one eye and only have 20 per cent vision in the other. After the incident, I gradually developed confidence and realised that outer beauty is not the only aspect that symbolises a woman. There are more facets of a lady.” 

Face your challenges

Ruqaiya, another survivor from Agra said, “It hardly takes more than two seconds for someone to cause such an irreparable loss to a girl, but I believe, the trust I embody in myself has made me face life squarely.” She shared that her sister’s brother-in-law had attacked her in 2012 when she was only 14 years old. “Just because he wanted to marry me,” she says, while trying to reason it out in her mind. “He wanted to marry me later as well, but, my brother refused. All this while, my sister and her husband supported me to a very great extent,” she says. Ruqaiya is now married and has a son too. 

Move on

Kunti, from Lucknow, was also attacked by her husband. “It’s strange how your people can hurt you,” she says. Narrating her story, she shares, “I was working in a factory. My husband was a drunk, abusive person and suspected that I was having an affair with someone else. One day, he asked me to step out from the factory and said he had something important to discuss. When I came out, he threw acid on me.”

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