In search of a son: Two drown after woman, her kids jumps into Jhelum

She was dejected over her in-laws’ taunts for not having a son.

FAISALABAD:

A woman jumped into River Jhelum along with her three daughters over taunts from her in-laws for not bearing a male child. Rescue-1122 personnel saved the woman and one of her daughters, while the other two girls drowned.

Rabia Parveen, 33, of Noorpur Quiadabad had married Zeeshan Ahmad, 35 a few years ago. The couple had three daughters – Nimra, 5, Aiman, 4, and three-month-old Safiya.

Muhammad Akhtar, a relative of Rabia, said her in-laws had been “unhappy with her since she gave birth to her second daughter, Aiman”.

“They wanted a male child in the family. They accused Rabia of being physical incapable of giving birth to a male child,” Akhtar told journalists.

He said Rabia’s in-laws had “even asked Ahmad to marry another woman if he wanted to have a son”.

Akhtar said that Ahmad too had started fighting with Rabia, and told her that he wanted a son. He said Rabia had become frustrated after she gave birth to Safiya at a hospital three months ago. “She said she did not want to go home as her in-laws would not forgive her for giving birth to another girl child,” Akhtar said.

He said the woman’s in-laws castigated her when she went home with the newly born baby girl. He said Rabia had become increasingly depressed as the taunts had become more frequent. On Tuesday afternoon, Rabia along with her three daughters went to the river, some five kilometres from their house, and jumped after throwing her daughters in the water.

Akhtar said passersby called Rescue-1122 who rescued Rabia and Aiman but Nimra and Safiya drowned.

The Shahpur City station house officer (SHO) said Ahmad had refused to lodge a case against Rabia, saying “we do not want any proceedings against her”.

Ahmad said that his wife had been upset lately. “She had become irritated after we expressed our desire for a male child.”

Rabia said that she had been under a lot of pressure from her in-laws who constantly ridiculed and abused her for not bearing a baby boy and also threatened her that they would bring another wife for he husband.

“I was disappointed due to the non-stop taunting of my in-laws and my husband. I decided to commit suicide along with my daughters,” she told the media.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2014.