Re-training in Pakistan
Really nice story coming from Pakistan. From the
Los Angeles Times:
Pakistani women burned by acid or fire rely on beauty of others
Saira Liaqat squints through her one good eye as she brushes a woman's hair. Her face, most of which the acid melted years ago, occasionally lights up with a smile. Her hands, largely undamaged, deftly handle the dark brown locks.
A few steps away in this popular beauty salon, Urooj Akbar diligently trims, cleans and paints clients' fingernails. Her face, severely scarred from the blaze that burned about 70% of her body, is somber. It's hard to tell if she's sad or if it's just the way she now looks.
"Every person wishes that he or she is beautiful," says Liaqat, 21. "But in my view, your face is not everything. Real beauty lies inside a person, not outside."
"They do it because the world demands it," Akbar, 28, says of clients. "For them, it's a necessity. For me, it isn't."
A bit more on the origins:
Liaqat and Akbar got into the beauty business in the eastern city of Lahore thanks to the Depilex Smileagain Foundation, an organization devoted to aiding women who have been burned in acid or other attacks.
About five years ago, Masarrat Misbah, head of Pakistan's well-known Depilex salon chain, was leaving work when a veiled woman approached and asked for her help. She was insistent, and soon, a flustered Misbah saw why.
When she removed her veil, Misbah felt faint. "I saw a girl who had no face."
The woman said her husband had thrown acid on her.
Misbah decided to place a small newspaper ad to see if others needed similar assistance.
Forty-two women and girls responded.
And some quotes from the two women at the beginning of the story:
Liaqat is grateful for having achieved her goal of being a beautician. She worries about her eyesight but is determined to succeed.
"I want to make a name for myself in this profession," she says.
Akbar plans to use her income one day to support her little girl, whom she has barely seen since the attack.
"I'm independent now, I stand on my own two feet," she says. "I have a job, I work, I earn. In fact, I'm living on my own . . . which isn't an easy thing to do for a woman in Pakistan, for a lone woman to survive."
It is a tragedy that these people have to grow up in such a 7th Century culture and suffer such pain and anguish. Still, it is awesome that Masarrat Misbah set up the foundation, arranged for some money to provide medical care and taught these women the beauticians skills. Living independently in Pakistan must be next to impossible...
Posted by DaveH at August 17, 2008 8:09 PM
| TrackBack