Video Editor: Kriti Saxena
"If we have the courage to fight against someone, the Almighty will ensure punishment for him—there will be justice at some point. I was wronged, and he was to be punished for his deeds. It doesn’t matter if it came after 22 years," said 37-year-old Rukaiya Khatoon, an acid attack survivor, speaking over the phone — elated and smiling.
The Quint first met and interviewed Rukaiya in February 2023 at Agra's Sheroes Café, which is run solely by survivors of acid attacks. At the time, she was being hailed for filing a First Information Report (FIR) against her attacker—over 20 years after the assault.
In the two-year legal battle that followed, she not only succeeded in having her attacker, Arif Hanif, arrested, but also secured a directive from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to ensure she receives the government-mandated compensation for acid attack survivors. This compensation had been denied to her for 20 years due to the legal requirement of filing an FIR to be eligible.
"It was never about the money, it was about my need to bring him to justice after 20 years," Rukaiya said over the phone.
But while Rukaiya's legal fight lasted two years, her battles with her family, society, and herself had been ongoing for two decades.
A 14-Year-Old Who Chose Silence for Her Sister’s Sake
A single mother, Rukaiya was just 14 when she was attacked. On 7 September 2002, while visiting her sister’s home in Aligarh, a proposal was made for Rukaiya to marry Arif.
Given her young age, Rukaiya’s mother rejected the proposal. That night, Arif brought acid and threw it on Rukaiya's face.
Even two decades later, Rukaiya remembers that moment as if it happened yesterday. At first, she mistook it for tea, she said. “After a few seconds, I felt like my face had been ripped apart,” she recalled.
Rukaiya was angry, but any action at the time risked jeopardising her sister’s future — and that of her sister’s two children.
When she woke up the morning after the attack, her brother had travelled from Agra to Aligarh and said he wanted to file an FIR. But her sister’s husband and mother-in-law told him to take Rukaiya away and assured him they would file the FIR themselves. They warned that if her brother took any action, they would abandon her elder sister.
'I Fought a Three-Pronged Battle'
When Agra ADG Rajeev Krishna visited Sheroes Café in December 2022, he heard Rukaiya’s story and assured action in both her case and another. He later wrote a letter to the Agra Police Commissioner.
Rukaiya’s FIR was registered at Agra’s Etmaddaula police station on 8 January 2023, under IPC Section 326A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by acid). The case was eventually transferred to the relevant police station in Aligarh, where the crime had taken place. Arif was arrested a few months later.
But ever since Rukaiya filed the FIR, she has faced pressure and scrutiny over her decision.
"Many would ask why I’m taking action now — it has been 20 years. Where might he be? His family kept insisting they didn’t know his whereabouts. My sister couldn’t go against her in-laws and tell me anything. She was kept in the dark too. She would say he comes to meet her husband, but they never tell her anything about it," she said.
But for Rukaiya, the legal battle was not as difficult as the one she fought against society.
In 2013, she separated from her husband after three years of marriage and returned to her maternal home with her toddler son.
“One woman did keep me on as a house help. But a week later, she asked me to leave, saying that visitors and guests in her home were getting scared. It’s something I’ve heard many times in my life, but each time someone says it, it feels like I’m being attacked all over again. It’s taken a toll on my mental health,” she said.
The backhanded comments from extended family members also grew more critical after she filed the complaint in 2023.
“Some even said that I only got a job because I’m an acid attack victim, as if he (the attacker) had done me some favour. They see that I have a job because of the attack — they don’t see how people stare at me wherever I go. They don’t see how many workplaces rejected me because of how I looked. Only I know what I went through,” she said.
'It Was Never About The Money'
For Rukaiya, the battle was more about justice than compensation. But at the same time, she also wants to secure her son’s future with the money.
“I have a son—I have his future to take care of. I have a job, but it’s not a government job. I was never able to go to school... If I don’t have a job tomorrow, who will take care of him? My husband was never interested in working. We are separated. How long do you expect my brother to support me? He takes care of me, but that doesn’t mean he should be obliged to keep doing so. He has a family to look after as well,” Rukaiya said.
Over the years, Rukaiya said, only her brother and mother have staunchly stood by her. In the same breath, she also thanks Sheroes for giving her a new life.
“I knew I made a mistake then, by not standing up for myself. This isn’t my battle alone — so many women like me might be facing the same struggle, unable to gather the courage to get their wrongdoers punished. These men roam scott-free and thump their chests because no one could hold them accountable. I hope my story inspires others to take up their battles too,” she said.