Dheherki village Sono Ghinio resident Rehmatullah’s two daughters Sughraan and Samani recently contracted a severe infection on their scalp and within a week they lost all their hair.
“We began to lose the hair two weeks before our wedding. We were both supposed to be married on the same day,” Samani said.
Rehmatullah said that when his daughter’s fiancés came to visit his house they both refused to marry the girls and called off the engagement. “I am a poor man and I had already spent most of my money on making arrangements for the wedding,” he said.
Both Samani and Sughraan said that they had stopped leaving their house.
“It has become too awkward and people openly point and laugh at us now,” Sughraan said, adding that they had repeatedly visited the local THQ hospital but the skin specialist on duty said he did not know what was wrong with them.
“They told us to go to the city and seek treatment but we cannot afford that,” they said.
Sughraan said that recently a group of local children began throwing stones outside their house and that someone had taken pictures of the sisters and begun distributing them through their cell phones.
Rehmatullah said that he had spent months arranging his daughters wedding and had spent most of the household budget on preparations.
“Now we have very little left and no one is willing to marry them,” he said, adding that he worked in construction and made very little money. “I can’t afford to even take them to the city, let alone pay for their treatment,” he said.
The family has appealed to the Health Department and authorities to help them pay for their treatment.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2010.
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