Acid attack victims fear film will bring reprisals

Islamabad: Victims of acid attacks in Pakistan are taking legal action to block the broadcast of Saving Face, an Oscar-winning film that documents their plight, for fear of violent reprisals.

Saving Face has won plaudits around the world for exposing the horrors endured by women whose faces haven been destroyed by acid — often thrown by jealous husbands or relatives who believe they have brought shame on the family.

The Acid Survivors Foundation Pakistan had co-operated with the makers but some survivors now fear a backlash and claim they had not consented to the film being released in Pakistan.

Naveed Muzaffar Khan, their lawyer, said he sent legal notices to the film's producers, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge, yesterday threatening an injunction if they did not agree to withdraw the film.

"Pakistan is a conservative society," he told The Daily Telegraph. "These women come from rural areas. It will be extremely difficult for them to face their families and friends. They fear this is going to lead possibly to more violence and more attacks."

Struggle

The 40-minute film follows two women, Zakia and Rukhsana, as they struggle to rebuild their lives after being attacked by their husbands.

It focuses on the work of Mohammad Jawad, a British-Pakistan plastic surgeon who was previously best known for restoring the face of Katie Piper, a model.

The film won an Academy Award in February — Pakistan's first. But Naila Farhat, 22, who appeared fleetingly in the film, said she had no idea it would become so well known.

Relatives

"This is disrespect to my family, to my relatives and they'll make an issue of it. You know what it's like in Pakistan. They gossip all the time if they see a woman in a film," said Farhat, who lost an eye when the man she refused to marry doused her face in acid.

"We may be in more danger and we're scared that, God forbid, we could face the same type of incident again. We do not want to show our faces to the world."

However, the claims were denied by the film's makers. Obaid-Chinoy said the women signed legal documents allowing the film to be shown anywhere in the world.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012