Clipped Wings

Prologue

How it all came to be

Before I begin, I would like to explain a few things.

1. The story is set in a Pakistani village and so, the traditions and mindset will be derived from there. Take it with a pinch of salt.

2. Also I would like to add that cousin marriages are common, so there is noting taboo about the subject.

3. Usually, surnames such as Mir are added before the name as will be done now.

4. It is a sad fact that in some areas girls are not allowed to study, mainly villages like this one. Sobia will have passed her Matriculate exam but will be weak in English. All dialogues written in italics will be Urdu, but written in English for convenience. A few Urdu terms and phrases might make their way in, and will be translated at the end of the chapter or written in brackets next to it.

The house in the picture is the haveli itself.

Please do tell me how you liked the story, comments make my day. Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Happy reading!

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The Mirs' had always ruled over the village, and were the richest family around. They had everything, the large haveli (ancestral home) inherited from their forefathers along with many lands. They had money, power and the world at their fingertips. Although set in their morals and traditions, they did not shun the modern world, and had many flourishing businesses. The family consisted of the patriarch, Mir Shajjad, his wife Saleha and their sons, Daniyal and Zain.

They ruled with diplomacy, and justice, much loved by the villagers all of which idolized the family. Zain was younger, having just completed his studies and was learning to help his brother handle the family businesses.

Mir Daniyal, was the more serious version of his younger brother. Where Zain was childish he was mature, the brothers were stark opposites but loved each other dearly. When he had turned 22, he had gotten married to his mamoo's (maternal uncle's) daughter Sobia, who was at that time 25. It was arranged by the elders, as every marriage had been for centuries. They had always married in their family, not wanting to tarnish the bloodline or let the fortune come in access of outsiders.

Two years after their marriage, Daniyal grown fond of his wife, despite her suspicious and clingy nature. She loved materialistic things and was spoilt, being an only child. All she cared for was celebrations, clothes and her vapid friends. Often he had to convince her that he was not cheating on her, and neither did he love someone. As he had noticed, she liked her status as the wife of the respected and famous 'Mir Daniyal' and that she loved to flaunt that status whenever she got a chance, whether it was to wear designer clothes or to shout at the servants and order them around.

As much as they tried for a child, it never happened. One fateful morning when Sobia threw up, everyone believed there was good news. When she was taken to the hospital to confirm it, her reports showed she couldn't be a mother. At first she dealt with it in denial, accusing the doctors of lying. Her father Zahid was cunning enough to keep on giving Daniyal ownership of his lands one at a time so that he never re-married, and when he found out about his daughters reports he immediately had them sent to every doctor and hakim ('wise men' and physicians that use herbal medicine) to see if there was any way she could conceive. When he didn't get the answer he wanted to, he sent them abroad to the best doctors he could find but it was simply impossible, having children was not in her fate.

When the Mirs' found out they panicked, how would the bloodline persevere? In desperate attempts to save his daughters' marriage, Zahid suggested they adopt a child but this decision was met with firm resistance, as Mir Shajjad considered it an insult, and vowed to not have the family name be tarnished.

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Azwa Ahmed was the daughter of Ali and Saira Ahmed, Saira being Saleha's younger sister. Unlike her other female cousins she had studied in a good school and had gone abroad to complete her studies, and had left a week before her childhood crush Daniyal's wedding, and was returning. She was more modern than most of her family, and although she was a good person, after Daniyal's wedding she had become cold, aloof. She was broken inside, and thus never revealed her emotions. Due to them staying hidden for so long, she had convinced herself she felt nothing for him now.

All her life she had been working hard to prove that girls could earn a living just as well as boys, and as she returned to Pakistan she had planned she would either get a job or help her father in his multiple businesses. If only she knew that before she could fly, her wings would be clipped.