Betrayed by NRI, woman runs from pillar to post for help

Zubi Zaidi, 28 is a woman disappointed with the ground realities of the system, regarding women’s safety and rights. She has spent the last six months making rounds of police stations, meeting officials and writing mails to the chief minister and other officers seeking help. However, any relief is still to come.

Married to an NRI nearly double her age, in June 2014, in a ceremony in Lucknow, Zubi later discovered that her husband had been married for 16 years in the US and had two children. She was sent to Dubai where her parents-in-law lived. Here’s where she was tortured for days.

“They kept me locked and tormented me a lot. They beat me with rods, burnt me with cigarette butts and made me clean toilets. It was only with the help of a guard that I managed to escape,” she informed.

In June, this year, Zubi managed to come back to Lucknow and lodged an FIR at the Thakurganj police station.

A law graduate, she is now fighting a battle against her rich and influential wrongdoers, who have relatives and property in the city. The youngest among four sisters, she also has ailing parents to care for. Her father is a kidney patient and mother has suffered two heart attacks.

Talking about the kind of pressures that she’s experiencing, she said, “Their relatives in Lucknow harass me regularly. My brother-in-law who lives here makes life threats and his men follow me wherever I go.”

Voicing her fears, she added, “They can shoot me dead anytime. When I told the police, they said that they would act if something happened. Are they waiting for something to happen before they act?” she asked incredulously.

Zubi alleged that her complaints to the mahila samman prakoshth, the SSP, the CM, the state women commission and others have gone unheard.

Embittered by her harsh experiences, she said, “I have seen the government boasting of their women-friendly initiatives but the reality is very different. When my in-laws tortured me they said that Indians were meant for menial jobs. I would argue with them and get beaten. I now ask myself if I should have defended my country at all.”

Interestingly Zubi’s letters to the US embassy and Dubai have received a better response. “They have extended me support and said that they would arrest the family if they got a letter from the external affairs ministry in India. I wrote to the external affairs minister but was informed that it was a state matter and that the UP government would take a call,” she said.