She was an adulteress and was cursed for breaking sherry's marriage with mustafa, at the time when sherry was pregnant. I suppose I ought to have known that this story, tragic though it may be, would not be the insightful commentary on Pakistan's patriarchal feudal system I'm hoping for.

Mustafa is a ‘first-gear’ type of person, who likes to start things but nothing held his attention for long, leaving his messes to be cleaned up by Tehmina or their slave-servant. She also talks in length of the other feudalistic societies/communities in Pakistan, the trial and tribulations of Mustafa Khar. Durrani said that the story is factual, with some names and events altered to protect the identity of the women who are at the center of the story.

Nevertheless, she grew up to be charming young lady who drew many a male attention but never from anyone her parents might approve. Her life journey makes one wonder who she really is: a survivor against all odds in a system designed to relegate a woman as a plaything, or an opportunist who used men of that system to her own advantage, or a woman who played by her own rules? Most people, even the highly educated ones, held on to some strand of victim blaming, questioning why Tehmina chose to stay with Mustafa or why multiple women kept marrying him even with his cruelty widely known. He fed his monsters by squashing Tehmina’s hopes, her dreams, humiliating her in every aspect possible, abusing her mentally and sexually, harassing her with his grotesque profanities, controlling her with his dire threats, leaving her petrified.

Tehmina Durrani (Urdu: تہمینہ درانی‎; born 18 February 1953) is the daughter of a former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan and Managing Director of Pakistan International Airlines, S. Tehmina Durrani was born into a strangely dysfunctional family with a combination of an over dominating mother and a mostly absentee father. Mustafa’s wife, Sherry’s clear warnings regarding Mustafa’s demented code of conducts, Tehmina chose not to believe them, resulting in him marrying her while Sherry was pregnant.Like all women of her rank, she was expected to marry a prosperous Muslim from a respectable family, bear him many children and lead a sheltered life of leisure.