Rebuilding Identities amidst Women Acid Attack Survivors in Nepal

Abstract

This study explores the narratives of the women acid victims of Nepal from the pluralist views in light of trauma literature. Although the classic model of trauma claims that truth cannot be attained due to the distortion of the traumatic experience, hence ‘unknowable’ and ‘unspeakable’, the revisionist model argues that trauma ruptures the order of life and can also reorient lives, when dealt with, from the standpoint of its variability in literature and society. Acid attacks have devastating psychological effects on survivors, leading to issues such as anxiety, depression, social isolation, and even suicidal ideations. However, the four testimonies of Nepalese acid survivors in this study reveal that psychological trauma is not an individual affliction but a socio-cultural wound, wherein identities are not only shattered but also contested. Drawing upon Cheryl Glenn’s ‘rhetorical feminism’ as a major insight from her work, Rhetorical Feminism and This Thing Called Hope, the study analyzes survivors’ narratives to address the feminist agency aligning with the revisionist model of Michelle Baelev’s ‘reorientation of consciousness.’ The researcher argues that oppressed gender norms can be challenged through the acknowledgement of traumatic events, rhetorical listening, and spatial rhetoric in rebuilding victims’ identities. The survivors fought an ordeal to remake identities in the new normal by ways of developing resilience, rhetorical resistance, activism, and advocacy. It is significant for social workers and policymakers to tailor effective interventions for trauma evacuation and social healing. Further, it is expected to open a discourse on burn violence, a pressing issue for future research in the Nepalese context. Keywords: agency, psychological trauma, reorientation of consciousness, rhetorical feminism, spatial rhetoric, rebuilding identities, trauma evacuation