From the Valley of Zombies! | Faiziyat by Bahrullah Afridi

 From the Valley of Zombies!

By: Bahrullah Afridi

In the simple courtyard of her home, Shandana stood by the mud stove, baking bread—an innocent young woman, recently a mother to two small children. From dawn till dusk, her life revolved around the stove, utensils, laundry, and her children... and perhaps, somewhere deep in her heart, a few silent dreams hidden away, dreams she herself probably never fully understood.

Little did Shandana know that the sun of her life would set so suddenly—and at the hands of her own father-in-law. The threshold where she had once crossed as a daughter to become a daughter-in-law was not to be a home, but the graveyard of her dreams. The man who was merely her father-in-law by relation, one day stormed into the house carrying a Kalashnikov and, within the blink of an eye, riddled Shandana with bullets. That innocent mother, who had just been baking bread, now lay in a pool of blood. A few minutes earlier, that same old predator had gunned down a young man from the neighborhood as well. Two corpses, two tragedies—but the real story behind both was the same: the story of covering up his own sins.

It happened like this: the young man had discovered the illicit relationship between that old man and his own mother behind closed doors. Afraid that the secret would be exposed, the old beast first killed the boy, so he couldn’t reveal the truth. Then, to protect his image before society, he murdered his innocent daughter-in-law too, giving his crime the name of “honor.” He declared to everyone: “My daughter-in-law and that boy had an immoral relationship. My honor could not tolerate it, so I killed them both.”

Because in the tribal areas, so-called "honor killings" often enjoy a kind of legal immunity. According to centuries-old beliefs, if a man and woman are killed in the name of honor, their families do not seek revenge. Thus, the murderer stays safe, and the crime is buried.

Today, I heard of yet another murder—the killing of Sheetal. My heart shattered. According to reports circulating on social media, at least Sheetal was punished for loving someone. But thousands of women like Sheetal are sacrificed daily, not for love, but to satisfy someone’s lust, protect someone’s secrets, or serve someone’s interests. And to cover it all, society wraps these crimes in the sacred word “honor.”

Shandana’s name is fictional, but the story is tragically real, from a remote village in the tribal belt—a village where the bodies of humans are inhabited by zombies, where brutality wears the mask of “honor.”

The question to this society is: how long will the coffins of innocent daughters, daughters-in-law, and sisters continue to be labeled as “honor” while protecting their murderers?

#Faiziyaat by Bahr Ullah Afridi