UBC student blinded in attack earns master's degree

Two years after an appalling attack in Bangladesh left her blind and disfigured, UBC student Rumana Monzur has finished her master's degree but says she is not done yet with her academic career.

Monzur has just been accepted to law school at UBC, saying Bangladesh's legal system was horribly biased against her and she wants to change it.

She may need a cane and a friendly arm to guide her but Monzur now walks the halls of UBC with confidence. It's an utterly incredible reversal of fortune for someone who lost so much.

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"I didn't let those negative emotions get a hold of my thoughts; I thought this is how I am going to do it. I have to do it now," she told CBC News.

In June 2011,Monzur was home in Bangladesh on a study break when her husband gouged out her eyes and bit off the end of her nose, all because she wanted an academic career in Canada.

"At that point I became blind, I faced several challenges, but I never thought I could finish my master's degree."

Doctors have said there is nothing they can do to restore her vision but with a lot of help from her friends at UBC, Monzur says she has learned how to live and how to succeed.

Monzur's friends read her text books out loud to her. Others transcribed her words into a master's thesis, which to the thrill of everyone involved she successfully defended.

Her professors say they've never seen someone bounce back from tragedy quite like she has.