Illustration: Arati Kumar-Rao
Illustration: Arati Kumar-Rao

To be whipped till…

A short story

Farzana Ali is the bureau chief of Aaj News in Peshawar. As a writer and journalist, she has focused on human rights, militarisation and terrorism-related issues.

Shakespeare had rightly said 'what is in a name?'. Call her Rabia, Shabana, Musarat, or Saira but in the end, she was just a girl. She was just fourteen when Mujtaba, a boy from Malakand, sent her a marriage proposal through his parents. Her parents refused, keeping in mind her age. This was unacceptable to Mujtaba. It was a disgrace for him, something against Pashtun norms. He left the area in shame because a girl had refused his hand. After all, he was a Pashtun and he had a house, a car, a shop, so what else did the girl need? It was difficult for him to be seen in town for a while. So he decided to go to Karachi, where he had many relatives and friends.

After refusing Mujtaba's marriage proposal, Shabana's mother asked her father whether they had made a wrong decision.

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