Mohammad Latif Khatana, 32, from Kashmir, India, (pictured here) cannot see or work due to the severe creases on and in his face. Strangers have spit on the road as he walks by, disgusted by his features. He is now over the moon that his wife is seven months pregnant, but worried his son or daughter will look like him.
The excited FATHER-to-be has spoken for the first time about living with NO FACE and how he’s terrified he has passed his condition onto his unborn child.
“I cannot wait to be a father and have some happiness in my life. But I worry every day and pray my child is not born like me.”
Latif, who lives high in the mountains with his 25-year-old wife Salima, in Tuli Bana, in Jammu and Kashmir, travels to Srinagar for four months of the year to beg and find money.
He was born with a small lump on his face but it has continued to grow and form huge flaps across his face, making it impossible for him to see. He said: “My mother still cries when she looks at me. She feels so much guilt and cannot understand why her youngest boy was cursed.”
Latif is the youngest of two brothers and three sisters and is the only child suffering this condition. Without his siblings he would’ve lived a very lonely childhood without friends. “Nobody wanted to play with me as a child,” he added. “The boys in my village used to beat me and taunt me every day. I lost my left eye when I was eight years old and they used to call me one-eye freak.”
As an adult Latif has continued to face many struggles. He is a strong man but because of his failing eyesight and facial condition no-one will give him a job.
He said: “I’d love to do an honest day’s work like a normal man providing for his family. It would make me so proud, but no one will give me a chance. I have to beg and hope people take pity on me so that I can feed my family.”
But Latif, who is in no pain and takes no medication, still worries his child will be born with the same facial condition. He said: “We can’t afford to see a doctor now, we’re too poor. And no doctor in the past has told me not to have children. I can only hope and pray that our baby will be healthy.”
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