US First lady Michelle Obama has honoured an Indian woman who became the standard-bearer for a movement to end acid attacks after she herself endured one such attack at a New Delhi bus stop in 2005 when she was just 16.
The woman, laxmi, was among 10 handpicked by the US State Department for its International Women of Courage Awards. laxmi’s attacker was the 32-year old brother of one of her friends and he resorted to the acid attack after she spurned her romantic advances.
“When we see these women raise their voices, and move their feet and empower others to create change, we need to realise that each of us has that same power, and that same obligation,” Obama said at the State Department ceremony on Tuesday.
“Many acid attack victims never return to normal life: they often go to great lengths to hide their disfigurement, many forgo education or employment rather than appear in public, and suicide is not uncommon. But laxmi did not hide,” the State Department said in its citation, noting: “She became the standard-bearer in India for the movement to end acid attacks. She made repeated appearances on national television, gathered 27,000 signatures for a petition to curb acid sales, and took her cause to the Indian Supreme Court.”