Zeenat Bano, 26, was born in an educated family in Muhammad Ibrahim Soomro village of Shikarpur District. Her father was a teacher in the village. She was the first-born out of her eight siblings: six sisters and two brothers. Her family used to live in a single-room mud house. The family owned 2.5 acres of land where they grew rice and wheat. Zeenat says, “Her father was a visionary and a thoughtful person. He wanted to educate his children being a teacher himself. The villagers did not allow their daughters to go to school at that time”. However, her father took her to the school with him and taught her along with his students. She passed her grade eighth exams. Also, she learned stitching dresses, embroidery work, and learned to make Rillis (traditional Sindhi floor/wall covering).
Zeenat got married at the age of 18. The marriage was arranged by her parents. At the time of marriage, her husband was studying for his Bachelor’s degree from Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur. She started her married life in a very large joint family of fifty family members: parents-in-law, husband’s three elder brothers along with their wives and children, three sisters-in-law, and father-in-law’s brother’s family. All lived in a two-room mud house, having an open Veranda. She said that she had to make 60-70 Chapatis (bread), or cook 10-12 Kgs of rice, a day for the whole family. She spent her day doing all the household chores........

Shabira was born in Village Amil of Shikarpur district in 1965. She was the seventh among her siblings; six sisters and three brothers. Her impoverished landless parents did not have much to feed the large family except some livestock. Shabira was 18 years old when she was married to a labourer on agricultural farms of local landlord. Her first child died due to malnourishment and the second child was a stillborn. Shabira narrates her plight when she was stigmatized as a woman of low character for being outspoken and for having sense of humour- a rare trait in a conservative patriarchal society. “They accused me of being a shameless woman, who does all the wrong things. My husband was also instigated to become harsh with me for my ability to speak out.” She recalls “One night my neighbours attacked me while my husband was sleeping and I had a narrow escape as I had to flee the village at night. The community male members gathered to beat me in the name of honour. Fortunately, one of my neighbours informed the police, who rescued me. Due to trauma and sadness, I lost my unborn baby. I moved to my brothers’ place. Everyone in the neighbourhood looked down upon me and considered me as a filthy being. My marriage was over. .......

Masmat Naziran is a 40 years old woman living in Darya Khan Sarki village of district Jacobabad. She was very young when her father passed away, leaving her mother and two young children behind. Her mother moved to her maternal home and since then Masmat and her family have lived with the maternal family. Masmat’s mother was a farm labourer but somehow managed to get her children educated in the local government primary school. When Masmat was in grade five she was married off to a relative. The marriage was arranged by her maternal uncles. Her husband was a tailor for the local landlords and did not earn enough money to cover the family’s expenses. Therefore, the family lived hand-to-mouth.
Masmat said, “During the early days of our marriage my husband was diagnosed with heart disease and he had to undergo a by-pass operation......

Kazbano Bibi aged 32 is one of 10 children of a peasant family from village Budho Samejo of district Jacobabad. Born into a wretched and conservative family Kazbano could not have the opportunity and wherewithal to attend a school. She was confined to thatched hut of her parents lending a hand to her mother in cooking and making Rillis (traditional embellished wall and floor sheets).
Kazbano was only 15 when she was married into a landless poor family where she spent most of her time tending to the extended family in a cramped mud room. Her over-indebted in laws were sharecroppers of 10% yield on a farm which was far less to feed the extended family. Kazbano says’ “The family owned five goats which used to give milk for household consumption while they were dependent on neighbours, who had buffalo, for butter and daytime meals.
Kazbano gave birth to her son one year after her marriage followed by six children each with a gap of one year. She says, “All children were born in the house without the help of any midwife. I did not know about pre-delivery medical check-ups that the local Community Health Workers suggest pregnant women nowadays. In sickness, we had to travel to Thul, a place 5 km away from our village. We were not allowed to go out without a male companion. Also, unlike today, the roads were not paved and our men travelled to Thul on bullock-carts.”......

Amina Bibi, 34, lives in Abdul Raheem village in Sindh’s Jacobabad District. Born in an impoverished family of wage labourers, she was married to a labourer at a rice mill at the tender age of 15. Amina lived in a mud house with her husband’s joint family. After three years of marriage, she gave birth to her first baby boy and then five sons and seven daughters.
“It would talk an hour to fetch a single pitcher of water. Drinking water was not available in the village and 25 households shared a single hand pump to fetch water; at times the women would engage in arguments on their turns of filling water,” says Amina.
Amina recalls, “The household’s condition worsened when the family sold out livestock and other assets to meet the treatment cost of Amina’s mother-in-law that hit the family hard and their debt increased manifold. Despite all these efforts, the mother-in-law’s life could not be saved.”......

Our today’s story in the series of “The Journey of Transformation” is about Ayesha from Karampur village of district Kashmore in the Upper Sindh. She was raised among eight siblings: five sisters and three brothers. Her parents were sharecroppers, working on a landlord’s field to keep the body and soul together on the meagre proceeds of their labour.
Ayesha is 45 now as a much better off person but her story is an eye opening account of misery and privation and her journey of transformation is an impressive story of a brave rural woman. As a child Ayesha’s social space was limited to her immediate family and the field of the landlord. Like other girls in the village Ayesha was never sent to school because it considered as a social stigma to allow girls and woman to interact with the outside world.
At the age 16 her marriage was arranged with one of her cousins, who were unskilled daily-wage labourer in a construction company. The joint family of her in-laws was crammed in a two-room’ mud house. Ayesha’s agony continued for years aggravated by poverty, malnourishment, exploitative working conditions at the landlord’s fields and unaccounted domestic labour. ......

Hakeem Khatoon of village Suleeman Buriro of district Jacobabad was only three years’ old when she lost her mother. Hakeem was sent to her maternal grandmother, while her two brothers continued to live with their father. Hakeem was coerced into labour on a landlord’s fields with her maternal uncles and aunts. When she turned 12, Hakeem was sent back to her father to live with him till her marriage at the age of 14.
Hakeem’s married life was full of hardship as her workload increased manifold. She was solely responsible to collect water, cooking for the extended family and labour work on a small piece of land owned by her in-laws.
Hakeem narrates her story “After one year of my marriage, I had my fist daughter and two years’ later the second one was born. As I did not give a son to my husband from the first two births, my husband had this excuse to marry another woman........