Recently, in resolving all kinds of disputes and conflicts, people are increasingly using sulfuric acid. This happens regularly in India, where previously sulfuric acid was freely available and anyone could use it to take revenge on a hated rival, punish a guilty wife, etc. And as a rule, no one bore any responsibility for this.

For example, in one Indian family, an aunt decided to throw acid on her niece, all because of an inheritance that she could not share with her brother. Thus, she decided to hurt him, only the poor girl remained blind for the rest of her life.

Another girl was doused with acid by her stepmother when she was only 7 years old. She did not want to have an extra mouth in her new family and thus wanted to get rid of the child.

It is true that most often men throw acid at women. For example, an 18-year-old girl did not like the intrusive advances of a 32-year-old gentleman at all and she resigned from his position.

He told her that if she doesn’t belong to him, then no one else will definitely get it. He waylaid her at a bus stop and doused her with acid. The worst thing is that none of the witnesses to what happened even tried to help her.

Another Indian woman and her two daughters were attacked with acid by her husband. The man was just in a bad mood and suddenly remembered that he had always dreamed of having a son, but his wife gave birth to only daughters. The youngest daughter died from her burns, and the mother and eldest daughter, after treatment, returned to this villain again, because they had nowhere else to go.

And this is what most victims of sulfuric acid do. They forgive their husbands and continue to live with them.

As a rule, perpetrators are not punished and only sometimes pay the prescribed fine or spend six months in prison.

Currently, sulfuric acid is not commercially available, but getting it on the black market is not difficult.

The Indian authorities do not react in any way to this widespread crime, and yet every day in the country approximately three women become victims of sulfuric acid. And every fifth of all victims is doused with sulfuric acid several times during their lives.

19-year-old Indian Reshma Qureshi, who was attacked in 2014 by several men who threw sulfuric acid in her face, opened the FTL Moda show at New York Fashion Week. Reshma showed off a dress by Indian designer Archana Kochhar. She walked the podium in support of a ban on the sale of corrosive substances that maim thousands of children and women every year. Reshma herself also explains her appearance with a desire to demonstrate solidarity with the victims of such attacks and encourage them.

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Indian model and acid attack victim Reshma Qureshi shows off a dress from Indian designer Archana Kochhar's spring/summer collection at New York Fashion Week.

Reshma and actress Sunny Leone pose for the cameras after a fashion show. Reshma emphasized that her appearance on the podium is a message to all those who have also become victims of acid attacks, wishing them courage.

The unfortunate incident happened two years ago when Reshma was on her way to an examination center. With her was her sister, who had recently separated from her husband because she had been subjected to cruel treatment and torture. Reshma's sister's husband attacked them and threw acid on the girls. They spent several hours on the side of the road, suffering in agony.

“This fashion show is very important to me. There are many victims of such attacks in the world, and I want to give them courage by appearing on the podium. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover. It would be very cool if people learned to look at each of us without prejudice,” said Reshma.

The model walked the runway in an ivory dress, decorated with multi-colored embroidery, and a sparkling tiara on her head.

After undergoing multiple skin grafts and contemplating suicide, Reshma met the founder of Make Love Not Scars, an organization dedicated to supporting victims of gender-based crimes. The meeting led to Reshma becoming the face of the organization's online video campaign, which was seen by more than 1.3 million users. “I can’t believe this happened to me,” the girl says.

Reshma hopes that her appearance on the podium will make governments around the world think about tightening regulations on the sale of caustic chemicals.

Makeup artists are preparing a girl for a fashion show.

“The appearance of victims like me on the catwalk of world-class fashion shows is a challenge for the perpetrators of attacks,” says Reshma. FTL Moda often attracts models with disabilities (including those in wheelchairs), on crutches, and amputees to participate in its shows.

“Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined that this would happen to me,” Reshma commented on her appearance at New York Fashion Week.

According to designer Archana Kochhar, the collection, titled A Tale of Two Cities, is inspired by the breathtaking Taj Mahal and the cheerful colors of magnificent India.

The woman was taken to hospital in critical condition, Indian police said. Nothing is known about the specific causes of the incident, but similar cases number in the thousands.

A Russian tourist was attacked with acid in the city of Varanasi in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. TASS reported this on the morning of Friday, November 13, citing representatives of the Indian police. The victim was taken to hospital in critical condition.

The girl turned out to be Russian by origin, but with a Bulgarian passport, a scan of which was soon posted on Twitter by local citizen journalists.

Acid attack on Russian Tourist Darya in Varanasi. She was in Live-in Relationship with Siddarth. pic.twitter.com/80nT8LQnap

Daria Prokina was born in 1992 in the Bulgarian city of Varna, her parents now live in Russia. As she herself told the Rossiya TV channel, Daria came to India as a tourist and rented an apartment in the center of Varanasi while traveling around the country. During one of the trips, she quarreled with the grandson of the owners, named Siddhartha Srivastava, who was traveling with her on a tour of the Himalayan state of Sikkim, bloggers We Uttar Pradesh reported. They claim that the young people “were in a relationship.”

According to the girl, Siddhartha got angry with her when she said that she would leave India after her visa expired, and threw acid on her while she was sleeping on the balcony.

Cases of this kind are far from uncommon in South and Southeast Asia. Reports of one or more women being thrown with acid (usually acid thrown in the face) appear weekly or more frequently in India, and almost daily in neighboring Bangladesh. In recent years, the number of such incidents has been measured in the hundreds (27 cases were registered in India in 2010, 91 in Bangladesh in 2011).

Sonali became a victim at the age of 18. She was attacked with acid by local men in a small town after she threatened to go to the police due to constant harassment

This is a relatively new trend. The first such attack took place in 1983. The most popular chemical for causing burns is hydrochloric acid, hydrogen chloride, which is freely available in Indian stores and is relatively cheap. If it comes into contact with the skin, it causes a severe chemical burn, leading to serious injury, blindness, and often death of the victim.

The victims overwhelmingly are women and young girls. The reason for the attacks may be refusal to marry or simply refusal to accept advances, or a negative reaction to sexual harassment. In many cases, the victims were women who advocated for the equality of women or simply those who work in the field of education: teachers.

In recent years, cases of rape, including gang rape, have also increased in India. According to 2014 statistics, one rape occurred in the country every 22 minutes. Despite all the efforts of the authorities and the tightening of legislation, it is not possible to reduce the level of sexual crime in India. Sociologists attribute this trend to the growth of the male population in recent years with the clash of traditional cultures with the challenges of modern civilization.

Women showed off dresses from top Indian designers such as Rohita Bela, Rannu Gill and Archana Kochhar. Most of these models were victims of violence at the hands of their husbands or close relatives.

Make Love Not Scars, an organization that helps women get their lives back on track after acid attacks, arranged for them to appear on the show.

The charity wants to raise public awareness of India's growing scourge as more women die or are left disfigured for life after having acid thrown in their faces by their own relatives.

A young woman named Mina Khatun, who has a young son, admits that she was very nervous before the fashion show. Her husband threw acid in her face. Mina says:

« People often turn away from me on the street. After the tragedy, I faced many problems in communicating with people, but, nevertheless, I decided that I should move on and continue to build my life, no matter what«.

Currently, Khatun has her own mobile phone store, which she opened thanks to Make Love Not Scars.

Bano Qureshi

The organization also helped 20-year-old Bano Qureshi, who spoke at New York Fashion Week last year and is currently writing a book that will hit shelves in 2018.

Qureshi was abused three years ago by her brother-in-law who mistook her for his wife. Previously, she was also afraid to leave the house: “I was afraid of the reaction of people on the street. Some passers-by averted their eyes, others asked what happened to me. They also said that no one would marry me because my face was ugly. But I'm proud of myself. I want everyone to know that what makes a woman beautiful is not her face, but her heart.”

According to official information, every year in India about a hundred women become victims of acid attacks. But Tanya Singh, vice president of Make Love Not Scars, believes the true number of tragedies is in the thousands.

She says local authorities don't report all cases because some women die before prosecution can be filed, and some choose to stay with the families who abused them:

« We had a case where a woman was attacked three times by her husband and still continues to live with him«.

Ria Sharma (left) and Tanya Singh, founders of Make Love Not Scars

Says Tanya Singh: “Many women are reluctant to reveal their faces when they first come to Make Love Not Scars. They say, “We won’t do this because we are ugly,” and we explain to them that this is not true - it is not them, but society that is ugly. A fashion show is a chance to realize that they deserve recognition and love.

Now they can go back to their home, to their street, and tell the world that they have no need to hide their faces and scars. On the contrary, the world around us must change its thinking.”

This is the tragedy of just one person - 23-year-old Dari Prokina. On November 15, 2015, she was attacked by a local resident and doused with acid. She suffered serious burns and now faces long and expensive treatment that does not guarantee a full recovery. Darya arrived in India a couple of months earlier to get acquainted with its culture and traditions, and received a liter of acid in the face. Now her life has changed forever.

In India, such crimes are not uncommon. But few people talk about the fact that the attack on Darya was the first acid attack on a foreigner in India. RG correspondent found out how the Indian government is fighting this problem and how it helps victims of acid attacks.

Acid attacks occur all over the world, but they are most common in South Asia. The leader was Bangladesh, where several thousand victims now live. In India, the statistics are more modest, but even they are impressive. In 2014, 309 acid attacks were reported, while 85 and 66 crimes were reported in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

The fact is that until 2013, due to shortcomings in Indian criminal laws, acid attacks were not separately registered. Usually they were included in the sections “domestic violence” or “harm to health,” the Indian Foundation for Acid Attack Victims told RG. - But two years ago amendments were made, and now this crime is considered as a separate type of offense.

When talking about the reasons that push people to commit such an inhumane act, activists of local non-governmental organizations shrug their shoulders.

If previously such actions were mainly committed due to disagreements of a love nature, now the reasons are very diverse, says Alok Dixit, an activist with the non-governmental organization Stop Acid Attacks. “But the most important thing they seek is revenge. Take revenge as painfully as possible. They do not set themselves the goal of killing their offender.

According to him, if you look at the gender composition of acid attack victims in India, you will find that about a third of them are men.

Not only women suffer, but also men. This is how people resolve domestic disputes, deal with their neighbors and just strangers who did not please them. Acid is used less frequently during robberies, says the activist. “But we have never encountered such attacks being committed against foreign citizens. The case with the Russian tourist is probably the first.

It should be noted that the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the problem with Darya happened, is a leader in such crimes. There were 185 acid attacks there in 2014 (50% of the total). By comparison, New Delhi, which borders the state, reported only 27 cases. The reason for such a high concentration of crimes in one state is unclear, but the general situation appears to have an effect. In India, he is one of the most criminally disadvantaged.

In order to somehow mitigate the damage to the country’s reputation, the Indian Foreign Ministry responded to the emergency involving a Russian citizen immediately. Diplomats not only visited the victim in the hospital and organized her speedy transfer to Moscow, but the Indian Ambassador to Russia personally met with her parents. Moreover, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj promised that the Indian government would reimburse all costs for Dari’s treatment.

The minister's gesture was received favorably in Russia, but not everyone admired it in India. And not because Indians do not wish Dara to recover; on the contrary, her tragedy found many responses on social networks. The fact is that India has quite a lot of victims of acid attacks who need treatment. And not everyone understands why the authorities ignore them.

In 2015, the government decided that medical treatment for citizens affected by acid attacks would be free. All expenses will be covered by the state. However, the country lacks specialized burn centers. They operate only in a few states, and victims in practice cannot exercise their right to free treatment, says Alok Dixit.

In his opinion, the government passes laws and regulations, but they are not implemented, and the situation does not change for the better. For example, after the adoption of a special law in 2013, store owners must acquire a license to sell acid and maintain a register in which to enter the data of buyers of this product. However, according to local activists, this innovation does not solve the problem of easy availability of acid.

Acid is often produced in unregistered laboratories and distributed without control. Anyone can buy it and it is very cheap,” says Dixit.

He is right. Note that acid is often used in India to clean toilets and sinks, and one liter of this dangerous liquid can be bought for just 1 rupee (less than a ruble).

There is still no well-functioning system for bringing criminals to justice.

Lawsuits last for years. And very often criminals receive 1-2 years and are released. But the lives of their victims are ruined forever, laments Dikshit. - We have a law that allows for long prison sentences for such crimes, but it does not always work.

It turns out that the criminals are released and feel quite comfortable, while the lives of their victims have turned into eternal exile. They find it difficult to find work and rarely leave their apartments, hiding their terrible scars from prying eyes. And when they find themselves on the street, they tightly cover their faces with a scarf so that no one can see their disfigured faces. Nevertheless, they unite in associations and fight for their rights. For example, a month ago the New Delhi government met them halfway and decided to employ several affected women.

The Delhi government's health department has notified the city's women's commission that it will employ six acid attack victims, an official said.

Local activists say the move, while modest, demonstrates a change in public attitudes towards victims of brutal attacks.