As she began to heal from the attack, Quereshi became the face of Make Love Not Scars, a nonprofit organization that, through its powerful images of acid attack survivors, gives a voice to survivors and leads India’s campaign against the sale of acid and prevalence of acid attacks.
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The daughter of a taxi driver and overseas for the first time, she was accompanied by a representative of the charity she works with, but flung into the bulb-popping, high-octane world of Manhattan fashion.
Quereshi’s hoped her appearance at New York Fashion Week would send a wave of hope and courage to others who have been through similar attacks.
An Indian model scarred in an acid attack challenged perceptions of beauty as she strutted down the runway at New York Fashion Week to promote a ban on the sale of corrosive substances used to maim thousands of women and children each year. The number of acid attacks increased 250 percent between 2012 and 2014, and 90 percent of the survivors were women, according to a Make Love Not Scars open letter to the Indian prime minister. Frequently, the women are attacked by people they know – relatives who believed they have “dishonoured” the family for some reason or other, or else a man whose advances have been knocked back.
Qureshi survived a vicious acid attack in northern India by her brother-in-law and his friends two years ago that took her left eye and disfigured her face.
“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”, she told AFP. There are about 1,000 acid attacks reported in India every year, though the actual number is probably much higher.
Ms Qureshi joined the fight against acid attacks a year after she was assaulted. Her Youtube videos under the hastag #EndAcidSale, has attracted a massive following.
You’ll find red lipstick as easily as you find acid. The organization posted a video to Facebook last month that showed the moment Quereshi found out she would be traveling to NY. But with her hair swept into a chignon with a delicate headpiece, professional make-up and her model frame flattered by the curves of the gown, she quickly turned into a natural. “That is all that should matter”, she said.
The runway appearance was part of FTL Moda’s #TakeBeautyBack fashion week campaign.
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The clothes she got to wear were designed by Indian designer, Archana Kochhar, whose outfits are frequently worn by Bollywood stars such as Amrita Rao, Nargis Fakhri and Bipasha Basu. The merging of Quereshi’s and Kochhar’s worlds is significant because Kochhar’s colorful, trendy designs represent luxury and decadence, while Quereshi grew up in a “very poor” area of India, Niccolini said. “I think that beauty should be intrinsic”.
