Unwanted Jewel : Chapter 1

1975

The clouds had held the sorrow of the world for way too long and finally let out that painful cry in a small village nearby the heart of Bangladesh.  The shrieks of the thunder were, however, nothing compared to the screams of a young woman who was in labor.  The entire family waited eagerly for this moment of bliss when they were all going to become uncles, aunts, grandmothers and so forth.  They all heard agonizing moans coming from the mother, suddenly following a baby’s constant cry.  Within seconds the midwife came out of the room with blood covered hands and exclaimed, “It’s a girl!”  The father’s eyes drowned with tears of joy as he ran to the room to see his new baby girl.  The rest remained still in the living room, looking at one another.  Finally an old woman broke the silence, “I knew it wouldn’t be a boy. She has no luck with having a boy.  Poor daughter-in-law, a girl will never let a mother sleep in peace.”

Pakistanis had worsened the value of the new country's women.  Nobody in Bangladesh wanted a gender that would be assaulted, exposed, threatened and humiliated in the future.  Nobody except the father was thankful to have a healthy baby girl.   This broken blood-covered land was still recovering from the war where countless people died, not to mention the hundreds of thousands women raped. 

The man who was, in seconds, labled "the unfortunate" due to his wife boring a female infant did not care about what the society had to say.  He hated that sexist mentality the villagers had and he wanted to take his daughter far away from that place.  He promised himself to give all the love in the world to his little princess for as long as he lived.  He promised to never let her feel like a neglected gender.  He named her Adeela, which meant honest, just, and equality.  “One day you will show them all who you really are.” He raised the small cushiony body up in the air and Adeela squinted and smiled.

Four years later, the father died of a brain tumor.