The battle for life: A woman’s struggle against cancer, financial woes

All the homeless, jobless Oxford graduate wants is a bright future for her son.


Obaid Abbasi/Muzaffar Mukhtar December 15, 2014

ISLAMABAD: There seems to be no end in sight for Fareeha Anwar’s ordeal who is battling blood cancer while spending nights under the open skies in the lawns of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

A former teacher of the Islamabad College for Girls (ICG), F-6/2, she did not even have proper warm clothes to protect her from the chilling cold.

Anwar has an impressive educational background. She went to Oxford on a scholarship in 1992 did her graduation in literature and returned back in 1996. Since then her life has been a continuous struggle.

She lost her mother, who served as a professor of chemistry at the ICG, to lung cancer few months after her return from Britain.

She was forcibly married off to a man twice her age by her uncle few days after her mother’s death. The man already had four children from a previous marriage.

Narrating her ordeal, Anwar said that her husband and in-laws were oppressive towards her throughout the ten years of marriage. She had a son from the marriage. After her husband’s death in 2006, Anwar was forced to leave her house.

She managed to find herself a teaching position at the ICG following her husband’s death and moved into a two-room accommodation in Pindora Chungi with her son.

Once she was diagnosed with cancer last year, Anwar was asked to leave her job at ICG on medical grounds. Due to joblessness and financial constraints, Anwar has not been able to get medical treatment. She had to move to a single-room accommodation in the same area soon after losing her job. This month Anwar was evicted from her house due to failure to pay the rent. The 42 years old teacher managed to get her son share a room in a private hostel with one of her old students.

Anwar’s son is a student at Allama Iqbal Open University and works at a call centre in Rawalpindi.

She found a temporary job paying Rs10,000 a month at a private academy but the institute closed down in August due to the sit-ins in the capital.   “I have no resources to get medical treatment and I will not treat myself but (if I have the resources, I will) spend every penny to educate my son,” she said.

When asked what she wished for, Anwar began to cry and said all she wanted was a secure and bright future for her son and nothing for herself.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2014.

COMMENTS (2)

Mohsin | 9 years ago | Reply

This woman lies through her teeth. I have personal knowledge of her fraud. I ended up getting duped and paid her a decent sum. Pls dont spread these falsehoods. Here is the link to what was published in 2009. Her lies change so frequently, it is hard to keep up with her stories.All lies and you are helping to spread them.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=196004&Cat=6&dt=9/1/2009

MQ | 9 years ago | Reply The authors are requested to share the contact details of Ma'm Fareeha Anwar. Would be grateful.
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