The Doll's House

A sad end to a sad life: Gudiya died of septicaemia. She was 26. A simple village girl who was used by the media. Did they keep track of her life? Did they care to see how she was faring?

This is what I wrote on September 27,2004:

Gudiya had to go through this humiliation. Everyone knows about the case of this young woman in a UP village whose husband, Mohammed Arif, was called a deserter when he went missing during the Kargil War. When it was recently discovered that he was in a Pakistani jail, he was brought back. Meanwhile, when he had disappeared, Gudiya’s and Arif’s families decided to get her remarried. She seemed happy enough with Taufiq and is now eight months pregnant with his child. Muslim clerics deemed that since she was not divorced from Arif she should return to him; he has refused to accept the child. So Gudiya will have to keep the child with her parents 10 days after her delivery. That is all the time Arif will give her.

Zee TV virtually dragged these people to the studios and conducted an on-camera panchayat where these decisions were taken. Gudiya remained a mute doll, forced to accept words of the Shariat being mouthed by those present. It is being said that a fair public judgment was passed. Gudiya had been quoted as saying earlier that she would not give up her child and was happy with Taufiq. But she has been given no choice.

The rest of the story is linked to the headline.