Survivor stories

Iqbal was a passionate dancer who performed dance with his family during wedding processions. One night, after rejecting the sexual advances of another man, Iqbal had a bottle of acid emptied over his head. Iqbal was left without eyesight and his lips and neck were so badly burnt that to eat was agony. He was 15 years old.

Through the notification system, ASF fieldworker Sardar Jatoi approached Iqbal and took him to Islamabad for treatment at the ASF centre. This was five years after the attack. Up until then he had not received any treatment. Here grafting to his lips and neck, allowed him to drink and eat easier with less pain.

“He was a very good looking boy. Someone, a man, approached Iqbal and asked him to be friends with him – intimate friends. Iqbal made clear he was not interested said I am not doing that. The man was persistent with Iqbal that ‘you are friends with other people, be my friend too’.
Iqbal’s parents are very poor woodcutters, and all three of them would dance at weddings. One night they were all asleep and that night Iqbal was attacked with acid by that man.
Iqbal is now blind. His sight is gone. The poor boy says that hopefully with treatment his eyesight will come back. We are trying our best.”
-Sardar Jatoi, ASF-Pakistan Fieldwork.