Acid attack survivor and activist Reshma Qureshi says she feels more beautiful now than she ever has before.
The 19-year-old from Mumbai, India, walked the runway at New York Fashion Week on Thursday, opening the FTL Moda show wearing a gown by Mumbai-based designer Archana Kocchar.
Qureshi hopes her appearance inspires confidence and hope in other acid attack survivors, she told Reuters, adding that she “felt extremely happy” up on the catwalk.
“Make your heart beautiful,” she told the Hindustan Times. “Beauty is not just about how you look.”
India’s Supreme Court stated in 2013 that attackers douse more than 1,000 women a year with acid.
Qureshi was visiting a town in northern India in 2014 with her sister and two friends, when her sister’s estranged husband and two other men attacked them, holding Qureshi down and pouring sulfuric acid on her face, she told People last year.
The attack destroyed her left eye and severely disfigured her face, and Qureshi received no financial assistance from the government for reconstructive surgery. She did, however, receive aid from Make Love Not Scars, a group devoted to supporting acid attack survivors. Since then, she’s become a spokeswoman for the group’s #EndAcidSale campaign, a movement to restrict the sale of acid in India.
Last year, Qureshi appeared in a series of Make Love Not Scars awareness videos framed as makeup tutorials. The series is titled “Beauty Tips by Reshma.”
At the end of the day, Qureshi does not consider herself a “victim.”
“I survived the attack, didn’t I?” she told the Hindustan Times. “How can I ever be a victim?”
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