Jannatul Ferdous Ivy: Overcoming tragedy, excelling in life

She greets us with a big smile as she opens the door. It is almost evening and she is visibly tired. Yet she is kind enough to sit with us for an interview.

After all, she is one of BBC's 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2023, alongside former US First Lady Michelle Obama, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, Ballon d'Or-winning footballer Aitana Bonmatí, and many other outstanding female figures.

She is Jannatul Ferdous Ivy – an activist, writer, and filmmaker from Bangladesh. She is also a survivor of a fire accident which impacted 60% of her body.

"I think I am still in a daze. My first reaction [upon hearing the news] was shock, then I broke into tears," she told us about the BBC's recognition. Ever since it was announced, friends, colleagues, and families have been showering her with flowers and cakes.

She is also the founder and executive director of Voice and Views, an NGO working on establishing the rights of burn survivors. The small organisation, which was established in 2014, receives little funding, but as Ivy said, every challenge makes her work even harder.

Ivy is an avid reader; the shelves are full of books in her living room. She shows us some of her own works, including her first novel 'Shopno Nirman Proyash'.

She has written 11 books so far with the latest, a series of poems, being published this year. "I like happy endings, what is the point in writing sad or tragic endings? Readers should have hopes, I believe."

Her short film 'Nirobey', which was shown in film festivals in Dhaka, Nepal and Brazil, talks about absence of gender equity in the workplace, especially for female workers with disability. Her feature film 'Article 16' showcased the issues regarding workplace harassment of disabled women.

The accident in 1997 has left scars all over Ivy and she has undergone more than 50 surgeries including skin grafting and plastic surgeries. "I no longer feel the pain of needles or knives, but I really cannot tolerate the dizziness from anaesthesia anymore. After every surgery, I say to myself, no more. But then something happens and I just have to go for yet another one," she said.

The surgeries helped restore most of the functionality in her arms but she has to maintain great caution for her skin. A little bit of dust can prolong into severe itching etc. "Skin is the largest organ of our body and even a 10% burn can affect it forever."

Ivy lives a full life. Her positivity is perhaps one of her biggest strengths in life.

When she is not working, she is painting. When she is not painting, she is learning how to play the flute and so on. "I want to learn so many new things! It is a pity I do not always have the time."

Khulna diaries

Ivy was born and raised in Khulna. Her fondest memories from this city include sitting on the stairs of a pond inside the Khulna Elizabeth Marble Primary School premises and having lunch with her classmates.

"I always knew I wanted to work and have a career when I grew up. I did not have any big ambitions as such. But I wanted to be a teacher at some point," she said.

"Khulna is such a green, pristine place. We had huge playing fields. Houses were made maintaining the building code with ample space at the front and back; they still are. When I had to stay back in Dhaka [after the accident], I thought to myself, where have I become stuck? All the congestion will choke me."

She was studying in Honours first year at Khulna BL College when she had the accident. Her father had been transferred to Dhaka and she was here for Eid holidays.

The burns were so severe that "everyday people from Khulna and Dhaka came to see me. Nobody thought I was going to survive."

A distant relative of her mother actually said something like "you should feed her poison. What's the point of being a woman and looking like that?"

"Those words haunted me for a long time," said Ivy. At the same time, people's love and support, especially from her family including her grandparents, gave her the reason to stay alive, and stay strong.

She is eternally grateful to her doctors who "gave me no false hope but nurtured me and took care of me like a new-born baby."

Overcoming barriers, one after the other

She was studying physics at BL College but after the accident, her father decided it would be traumatic for her to continue because lab lessons include using burners. She had a study gap because of the treatments and at one point, she thought she may never be able to get a degree.

"My parents became worried too, especially my father. Was I going to remain like this for the rest of my life?"

But she kept trying and eventually completed her Masters in English Literature from Eden College in 2005. She also finished an LLB from National Law College.

Soon, she joined the organisation Action on Disability and Development (ADD) and completed a Masters in Development Studies (MDS) from BRAC University. She has also worked at Handicap International.

Her work linked her to a network of more than 20,000 disabled people across more than 20 districts in Bangladesh. But she saw no burn survivors among them. "I felt isolated, was I a disabled person or not? Where could I ask these questions?"

Along with her ex-colleagues as founding members, she finally started Voice and Views. "Burn itself is a disability. Be it from a war or an acid attack, the one who gets burned, what happens to their human rights? There are so many of them out there."

Ivy's identity as a writer gave her the most satisfaction but when it took her more than eight years to find a publisher for her first novel, she realised making a career out of writing would be more difficult than she thought. Now, with BBC's recognition, she wants to continue advocating for the rights of burn survivors.