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Originally published in Naya Daur on November 4, 2020

You’re a student entering university. Growing up with sisters and friends, you know exactly what that entails: you’re expected to watch what you’re saying and maintain decorum at all cost. Whether you like it or not, your name is directly associated with your family’s honour and you’re required to see that it remains intact through thick and thin.

While your brothers are a source of pride for the family, you’re tasked with being the protector of its legacy by adhering to an endless list of thou shalt nots. You’re told the slightest deviation from tradition could spell disaster for your personal identity and future. Marriage proposals, you’re told, are only for the most behaved, well-mannered women.

There’s no margin for error.

Originally published in Dawn on February 3, 2019

You attended an elite legacy school – the kind your grandfather and father went to, and your kids someday would. Consequently, your peers are the offspring of notable bureaucrats, industrialists, politicians and landlords. An expensive private education paves your way to a prestigious university, where its professors use the abundant resources at their disposal to shape you into an analytical thinker. By the time you graduate, you have morphed into a self-starting individual capable of abstract thought, not to mention developed a strong network of influential compatriots — your brothers in arms, if you will.