She hugged death smiling – Ayesha and the plight of faithful partners cheated in marriage

The viral video of a smiling 23-year-old Ayesha Banu Makrani, a resident of Almina Park, Vatva, Ahmedabad, made moments before her suicide has left the netizens in a deep state of shock. The shock is not of the actions that led to the death of the girl, albeit the smiling demeanour in which she bid adieu to the world – the simplicity through which she expressed herself and the pain she was going through.

The smile of Ayesha hid the fact that she was in a marriage where her partner harassed, manipulated and hurt her to the extent that despite having a fledgeling professional career and everything just about right in life, she took the ultimate decision of taking her life.

On the afternoon of February 25, Ayesha recorded a two-minute video in which she talked about how the one-sided relationship had driven her to this point. “Mohabbat karni hai to do tarfa karo, ek tarfa me kuch haasil nahi (Loving someone should be a two-way street, one-sided love attains nothing),” Ayesha can be heard as saying.

However, even in her final moments, Ayesha made sure that her husband does not face the music for her suicide by making an emotional appeal to her father, Liyaqat Ali Makrani — requesting him to not pursue a case of domestic violence against her husband. She said she was “granting freedom to Aarif” before jumping into the Sabarmati river.

“Dear Dad, when will you fight your case? Don’t let Ayesha fight because she doesn’t want to fight. If Arif wants freedom, then he is free. Let’s live our life, this is the opportunity. I am happy, I will meet Allah, I will tell him, where did I go wrong? I got good parents, wonderful friends but something either lacked in me or my fate,” she said.

Reportedly, after their marriage, Arif and his family began to harass Ayesha for dowry. She had filed a complaint against her husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law at the Vatva police station and a case of domestic violence was filed as well.

She also added that she was happy for she will now meet Allah. “This is a lovely river and I hope it absorbs me, Main hawaaon ki tarah hoon; main behna chaahti hoon… Main khush hoon aaj… Mujhe duaon me yaad karna, kya pata jannat mile na mile (I am like the winds; I want to flow… I am happy today… Remember me in your prayers. Don’t know if I will go to heaven or not).”

A video of Ayesha’s father is also doing the rounds of the internet where he can be seen painfully telling the media mics that it was Arif, whose greed for dowry drove her daughter to suicide.

Senior IPS officer and a Twitter celebrity Arun Bothra shared a poignant afterthought that Ayesha’s painful smile had forced him to share the video.

According to the latest reports, a case to abetment of suicide was lodged and the Gujarat Police arrested absconding Aarif Khan on Tuesday evening. “Arif Khan has been arrested from Pali in Rajasthan. Earlier, a police team had reached Jalore at his residence where he was not found. Later through technical analysis, we held the accused from Pali. He will be brought to Ahmedabad on Tuesday on transit remand,” said VM Desai, police inspector at Sabarmati Riverfront West police station.

Ayesha was an employee of ICICI Bank mutual funds division and a final year student of MA in Economics in SV Commerce College at Relief Road in Ahmedabad. Her father had even paid a sum of Rs. 1.5 lakh in dowry at the time of marriage and despite doing everything right in the book, the fate meted to Ayesha has shattered those who have seen the video. A tear cannot help but form in the corner of our eyes as we pray that the soul of Ayesha attains peace and the perpetrators are brought to justice soon, for Ayesha and her family deserve it.