Unmarriageable

by Soniah Kamal

For the truth was that behind every successful Pakistani girl who fulfilled a dream stood a father who allowed her to soar instead of clipping her wings, throwing her into a cage, and passing the keys from himself to brother, husband, son, grandson, and so on.

And because she enjoyed her status as first daughter, Alys had chosen to overlook her father’s ridiculing her mother. It was not that her father was wrong, but he should not have turned Pinkie Binat into a joke between them. Should not the husband-and-wife bond be more sacrosanct than that between a parent and child?

“I wanted to tell him about my kind and generous Jena, my fearless Alys, my artist Qitty, who holds her head up high no matter what anyone says to her, and my Mari, who just wants everyone to go to heaven. Even my silly, selfish Lady, who doesn’t know what is good for her and just wants to have a good time all the time. But I didn’t tell him about any one of my daughters. He doesn’t deserve to know a single thing about my precious girls.