Tainted Honor
By: Maryam Noor
Tags: Domestic Violence, Honor, Marriage, Women Empowerment, Violence Against Women

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

She looked at her watch and was horrified to see the time. It was 4 p.m already which meant that 2 hours had passed since the college got closed. It was not her mistake, she thought to herself. He was so charming that time flew whenever she was in his company.

“I must go now, it is already very late. If anyone found out about us, I would never be able to see you again,” she said anxiously.

He walked with her to the bus stop and watched her board the bus, never knowing that this is the last time he is seeing her.

Sami saw Nazish for the first time when she came to his coffee shop with her friends almost 2 years back. “This is the girl of my dreams,”he thought as soon as he saw her. Nazish not only had that captivating beauty but was also full of elegance which immediately caught Sami’s attention. Shortly afterward, he approached her and confessed his feelings.Her answer was very simple “ Please approach my parents for my hand in marriage if you have feelings for me as is the custom in our society.” Sami was over the moon to hear this from her. It was considered as a “YES” in the society to which they both belonged.

He wasted no time in sending his parents to her house. But to his horror, his parents came back disappointed. “Thay had arranged their daughter’s marriage with someone else,” his father informed him.

“How can they do this when their daughter is clearly in love with me,” he cried in pain. But even as he thought this, he knew that the choice of women do not hold any importance in their szculture.

After the first failed attempt, Sami made several other unsuccessful attempts to convince Nazish’s parents but their answer never changed.

He and Nazish kept meeting secretly and today was one such meeting. They had already planned their future ahead and had decided to go for court marriage in secret. They fixed their next meeting day for this purpose. Little did they know that their secret had already been revealed.

That evening when Nazish entered her house, she felt a heavy blow on her head. Her eye's sight blurred momentarily. She gathered all her strength and turned around, It was her brother who had hit her with an iron rod. The pain was unbearable, not only because of the blow but also to see the person responsible for it. It was her beloved elder brother, for whom she had always cooked delicious meals, ironed clothes and polished shoes. He was shouting something which she couldn't hear.

Next, she felt herself being dragged on the rough floor. Her back became sore, her clothes torn. He threw her into one of the darkest rooms of their house and left. She tried to shout for help but no voice came out of her mouth.

She managed to drag herself to the door and started banging it with all the strength she could muster. There were voices outside, many people were shouting at the same time but no one came to her help no matter how hard she banged. Her senses started to give up. She felt something creeping down from her head to her neck and then lost consciousness.

When her eyes opened again, every inch of her body was aching. She felt very thirsty too. It was very dark and quiet outside. She tried to stand up but in vain.

After a little while, hurried footsteps approached and then the door opened. Someone was standing there holding a torch in his hand. It took a while for her eyes to adjust and when they did, she realized, It was her father. So delighted she was to see him. Her father, her saviour had come or so she thought.

She tried to reach out to him but the next second, something hit her so hard in her ribs that she screamed like a wounded animal. The taste in her mouth changed suddenly and then she saw blood gushing out of her mouth. With this, came the horrible realization that it was actually her father who did this.

She couldn’t bring herself to believe this. How could her beloved father do this to her? She looked back in a state of shock but it was not her father’s face that looked back. It was only the face of a “man” that looked back. A “man” whose “honor” was tainted by his own daughter. “Precious honor” got contaminated because his daughter wanted to marry someone of her own choice.

Something caught Nazish’s attention. An axe blade gleamed in torch light. “So this is my fate, to be killed in a dark room by the ones who were the focus of my love all my life and when the focus changed, so did they,” she thought to herself.

“You have brought shame to us. Ruined our honor and only your blood can repay for our lost honor,” she heard her father saying.

These were the last words she heard before the swish of the axe, but that swishing sound was not the last thing she heard. There was one more voice added to that sound.

The faint sobs of her mother.