
Simply beautiful. A new calendar is showcasing acid attack survivors and putting them in a different light—hoping to redefine what we see as beauty.
Created as part of the Stop Acid Attacks campaign by the Chhanv Foundation in India, the funds from the sales will help the rehabilitation of Indian survivors.
"In a society as insensitive as ours, it doesn't take much for the acid attack victims to lose their self-confidence," the calendar's website states. "Apathy of the attackers give birth to the acid attack. The apathy of relatives, 'friends' and neighbors generates burns everyday. The calendar shoot aids the society to broaden the interpretation of beauty."
Women are often the target of acid attacks. In fact, it's believed that around 80 percent of victims are women and girls. There are roughly 1,500 documented attacks each year, with the majority of them occurring in India. Women are often targeted for refusing sexual advances.
"They are fighters," Rahul Saharan, one of the two photographers (along with Pascal Mannaerts), told the Huffington Post (opens in new tab). "It's up to us—we make them victims or we make them fighters."
You can see more images below. Learn more about the calendar (and buy one) by visiting paltan.in/calendar. (opens in new tab)
You should also check out:
Saving Sonali: How an Acid Attack Victim Made a New Start (opens in new tab)
A Documentary About Delhi's Brutal Bus Rape Gets Banned in India, BBC Releases It Anyway (opens in new tab)
I Survived a Deadly Avalanche (opens in new tab)
Samantha Leal is the Deputy Editor at Well+Good, where she spends most of her day thinking of new ideas across platforms, bringing on new writers, overseeing the day-to-day of the website, and working with the awesome team to produce the best stories and packages. Before W+G, she was the Senior Web Editor for Marie Claire and the Deputy Editor for Latina.com, with bylines all over the internet. Graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a minor in African history, she’s written everything from travel guides to political op-eds to wine explainers (currently enrolled in the WSET program) to celebrity profiles. Find her online pretty much everywhere @samanthajoleal.
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