A cafe in the northern Indian city of Agra provides a space where female victims of acid attacks can shed the burden of physical and psychological stigma that a disfigured face entails.
“Sheroes Hangout,” a project of the non-profit Stop Acid Attacks, or SAA, is not your typical cafe – it is anything but conventional.
The cafe’s purpose is not to seek profits but regenerate lives through social integration and psychological rehabilitation – lives of women who have fallen into a limbo due to the violent assaults and heinous chemical burns they have suffered.
Geeta, Neetu, Ritu, Rupa and 15-year old Dolly are five such individuals who exemplify the struggle against a now-systematic scourge of acid attacks, which make young women’s lives a living hell of emotional agony.
The women work in all areas of the establishment – preparing food, serving and interacting with customers, ferrying orders up and down the stairs (the kitchen is on the upper floor) – and all freely share their traumatic stories with visitors.
Rupa, who was attacked in 2008, told EFE she didn’t mind “sharing my story with guests, because then they can share it onward with others, thus creating awareness about acid attacks.”
She has taken up nearly an entire wall to display her collection of colorful dresses, reaffirming her dream of becoming a fashion designer in spite of the tragic attack.
Adjacent book shelves, meanwhile, feature stories of inspiring figures such as Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 for defending women’s right to education, and the late South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
A nearby screen, meanwhile, plays a video documenting the stories of the acid-attack victims.
The women represent a small sample of overall victims of acid-throwing incidents in India, which began keeping records of these crimes in 2013.
According to the country’s National Crime Records Bureau, 309 cases of acid attacks were reported in 2014, or nearly six per week.
The attacks are generally carried out as revenge against women, mostly aged 15-20, often following rejection of romantic advances, and they are followed by a long and painful recovery involving surgeries and costly treatments.
Under a 2013 law, the Indian government must now fully cover the cost of this medical care.
The widespread availability of acid at a price of 30 rupees ($0.45), the same as a half-dozen eggs, makes it difficult for authorities to prevent its use as a weapon.
Despite surgical intervention, the acid attacks lead to lifelong scars that victims tend to keep covered, “not because they like to, but because others expect them to,” SAA project director Parth Sarthi told EFE.
Speaking of the women working in the cafe, Sarthi said, “they used to stay at home, avoid going out or interacting with people, but now they are very lively and talk to you like any other person, because they’ve realized that despite their disfigured face and changed appearance, they are not very different from the rest.”
The cheery colorful cafe is devoid of any covered faces.
“I am always smiling because I’m happy. Before I used to be sad, cry all the time and never left the house,” Dolly, the youngest acid survivor in the cafe, told EFE, flashing a beautiful smile.
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