Internet romance: All you need is love…and a passport

Three men from Charsadda find their Polish marriages contested as two get detained, one deported.

PESHAWAR:

“I will wait for him till my last breath,” she sobbed. “We love each other and got married. I have a valid marriage certificate but I don’t know why my government is so cruel,” 27-year-old Kinga Wodzińska told The Express Tribune via video link from Poland.

In early 2012, Fahad Nasif, 27 and his two cousins from Charsadda travelled from Pakistan to seek political asylum in Europe. The process was eventually started in Brussels.

Nasir then met Wodzińska through the internet and promptly landed in Poland. It was there that Nasif said he finally found “home” and it was where he married her. According to the husband, Wodzińska converted to Islam and took a new first name, Malaika.

His cousins also found ‘love’ on the internet, also in Poland, and attempted to plant roots by marrying Polish women.

Nuptial bliss did not last long; three months after Wodzińska and Nasif tied the knot in October 2013, Nasif and his cousins were imprisoned at Krosno Odrzanskie prison for illegal stay in the country. After rejecting his plea, the Polish authorities deported him to Pakistan.

“I was arrested and accused of illegal entry and fake marriage. Then I was deported with a three-year ban on returning to Europe,” said Nasif.

“I cried when I heard about the ban. I presented my arguments but it all fell on deaf ears,” he recalled. Nasif said he was not given very clear reasons for his deportation as at the time of his wedding, his asylum was being considered and he had travel documents of Belgium.

“We were very happy, as was Kinga’s mother, with the situation. I was ready to settle with my beloved when my dreams were shattered,” he shared. “Now my wife is living thousands of miles away. Just knowing this is torture. I really miss her.”

Nasif’s deportation has not been easy on Wodzińska who has spent the last ten months without her man. “I feel depressed and chase after the slightest chance which might get my beloved back,” she said.

Love and war

Wodzińska and Nasif are not alone in their plight; the other two couples have also been trying to find adequate recourse to remedy their situation.

Nasif’s cousins, 23-year-old Hamid Khan and and 22-year-old Abdul Aziz, who were married in Poland, have been imprisoned at a detention camp in Krosno Odrzanskie since the last 10 months. Unwilling to give up, both young men were on a hunger strike for at least ten days when they spoke to The Express Tribune over the telephone in early June.

“We did not commit any crime, we loved and married; those are our basic rights – then why are we in prison?” Hamid Khan questioned.

Khan’s wife Dominika Sierakowska, a 22-year-old medical student, seemed more perturbed.

“My husband is very weak; he is on a hunger strike. Last night he fell on the floor and split his head open. I need justice, I am scared about his health,” Sierakowska cried while video conferencing. A portrait of Khan and Sierakowska could be seen in the background, hanging in her apartment.

“Both Hamid and Abdul are under a lot of psychological stress. They are physically very fragile because of their hunger strike against the government’s ignorance,” added Sierakowska.

“Human rights activists must raise their voices against the brutality of the Polish government. We were living here as peaceful citizens but the government has ruined our lives as well as our dreams,” said Abdul over the phone, his voice as weak as Hamid’s.

Fighting for recourse

The three women have tried various means to change their government’s attitude towards their Pakistani husbands. As a mark of some success, Polish media has widely covered their viewpoint.

“Now people in the city are well aware of our stories and our version of events. The future looks a bit brighter, hopefully we will all get justice,” said Abdul Aziz’s wife Adrianna Henc.

“No one said anything when we got married. After six months, the government suddenly decided these Pakistanis were in the country illegally and that our marriages were fake. I mean, we actually have marriage certificates and witnesses,” an obviously annoyed Henc shared over video link. Henc and Aziz were married six months before his incarceration.

“We three (wives) have decided to get our husbands back, and will show these brutal officials that we are right.”

According to Krzysztof Jasinski at the Polish Embassy in Islamabad, “Both Pakistani citizens in Krosno Odrzanskie are in good health and are under the medical supervision of qualified staff.”

The two men had started their strike on May 23, confirmed Jasinski. He said Hamid and Abdul were initially in isolation but under the supervision of a doctor. On May 31, the Pakistani inmates sent a written request to be moved into the main hall of the Polish prison, stating they had ended their protest.

However, after breakfast the next day, Hamid and Abdul started the protest once again. “They are still under medical supervision at Krosno Odrzanskie,” added Jasinski.

Back in Pakistan, Nasif pledges to wait for his wife’s struggle to come through. “We won’t give up, this relation is based on true love, and the world knows that love always wins.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2014.