SHAKILA RAFIQ’S STORY…ADULT WOMAN

RECREATED BY KHALID SOHAIL

Why are people so nosy? Why do they like to gossip?

When she was married, they said so many things behind her back.

“She is proud of her husband’s money”

“She is conceited because she is beautiful”

“She is arrogant because her husband loves her”

When her husband died, rather than decreasing, the gossip increased.

“Why does she laugh?”

“Why does she go out?”

“Why does she talk to strangers?”

“She is thirty years old. Why does she socialize with an eighteen year old boy?”

People whispered and the clouds of suspiciousness spread all over the city.

When she witnessed, listened and experienced all that, she took a different turn in life. She suppressed all her physical and emotional needs. She covered herself so that nobody could see her. She started to pray regularly. She cut herself off from others and got lost in her own world. Even then people did not leave her alone. Her outside remained the same, but her inside was changing. When the gossiping did not stop, she decided to leave her home and homeland and immigrate to a foreign country.

            Since she was financially well off she bought a nice luxury apartment. Local people of her building did not care who she was and what she did. But her own country men and women were there, too. And they had the same attitude. They whispered,

“When did she come home last night?”

“Why does she not socialize?’

“Why is she so rude and does not say hello?”

She rarely went out to buy groceries or do shopping or see her doctor. She spent a lot of time alone. Some people saw her when she visited her mosque to offer prayers.

            One day her doctor’s office called many times to remind her of her appointment but nobody picked up the phone. The Doctor called the Security Office of the building as she had requested that in case of emergency. When the Security Officer went to the 19^th floor and opened the door he found her dead. She had had a fatal heart attack.