India, Dec. 25 -- Sixteen years after an acid attack permanently altered her face, vision, and life, social activist and survivor Shaheen Malik says she feels broken not by the violence she endured, but by the justice system she trusted for more than a decade and a half. On Wednesday, a Delhi court acquitted three main accused of conspiring, along with a juvenile, to carry out the 2009 acid attack on Malik in Haryana's Sonipat-a verdict she says has shattered her faith in the system meant to protect survivors.

The judgement, delivered by a Rohini court, brought to a close a long-running trial that Malik has pursued since her twenties. Now 42, she describes the verdict as a moment of profound personal and collective loss.

"I fought this ...