Poor Noor’s hope for getting something to eat was dampened when she found her confidant Zakia sitting with women from the neighborhood. It was already dark outside and she could not go anywhere to get food. Besides, Zakia was the only gentle and kind friend to whom she went for help in times like these; but this time, though, her fate seemed to be stocking nothing for the night, except hunger. How could she beg for food in front of all those women? And so she returned home, feeling dreary down to the core of her being. That night, Noor and her three children had to sleep without eating anything for supper. Only sleep was kind enough to relieve the pain of hunger and helplessness.

This is not an excerpt from some tragic novel but a brief, true account of what happened to penurious Noor and her kids in a lower-middle class neighborhood of Hangu, last week. Noor is poor and not a widow but living like one because her husband is a druggie who ‘entertains’ himself with marijuana and has nowhere on his mind any care or sense of responsibility toward his wife and kids. He drives a Suzuki vehicle for a while, each day, just getting enough fare from passengers to keep his addiction afloat and that’s it; no heed paid to the needs of his family. Noor goes to Zakia to seek help with getting food and clothing and Zakia gets her charities from relatives and friends while also helping Noor of her own.

Being uneducated and unskilled, Noor is unable to do any work for a living. She is dependent on others for help. But the biggest tragedy is her unbearable marital knot. Following the ideals of the society, she does not even think of leaving her husband, who also frequently inflicts verbal abuse on her. Being a woman of character, she is obliged morally to be respectful to her husband and bear the sufferings as her ‘fate’. Also, she knows that her poor siblings won’t be able to provide for her and her children, should she choose to leave her husband. There is no way out of the reckless chains of helplessness.

Poor women like Noor are not uncommon in the lower middle class. There are at least a couple of them in each row of houses along every lane in Hangu. In the slums, the situation is more gloomy and the provision of food to the helpless or neglected depends on doles. Women, sometimes accompanied by children, have to go out and seek doles, door to door, to stay alive. There is no government aid or help/support program for these women; all that keeps them going is help from neighbors and townsfolk. Yet, they are living members of the society and of course they know what it feels like to go to bed without eating any food.

Noor’s eldest daughter has passed Matriculation and wants to go to college but the shackles of poverty have tied her up. Noor cannot go from door to door like many other women. She has to hide her poverty from as many people, and for as long, as she can, and Zakia is doing all she can to help Noor. Depending on the help gathered from Zakia, Noor’s daughter may or may not be going to college. If she does, she may have to memorize that clichéd text in which god helps his creatures and children are supposed to respect their father. And it doesn’t matter whether or not she believes it.