ISLAMABAD: In the fourth performance of the week-long Youth Drama Festival, students of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) on Thursday presented a play Meri Kahani at Pakistan Council of the Arts (PNCA) auditorium on Thursday.

The play explains how a society exploits girls who come from a poor background.

The script of the play was written by QAU student Jasim Abbas, who also played the role of the protagonist. It aimed at drawing the attention of the audience towards a vice that exists in our society.

The setting of the play is a village scene where a family lives in a small house. They have a daughter who has passed her matriculation. In order to add to their income, they rent out a room to a young man.

However following her father’s illness, the girl is compelled to take up a job, and here her ordeal begins.

She meets various people and not one refrains from harassing her.

Even, her employer, who is quite aged, tries to take advantage of her poverty and forces her to marry him.

The actors, who were students of QAU, put up a great show, and despite a noisy crowd, did not err in their performance. They exuded confidence and showed great command over their dialogue delivery.

The tenant too makes advances towards the girl, but fails. However, he succeeds in winning the girl’s sympathy by narrating a false story of his mother’s poor health.

He tells her that he needs money for her treatment. The girl feels pity on him and hands him over gold ornaments which her mother had been saving for her since her childhood.

However, a woman who lives in the neighbourhood, sees them meeting and starts spreading rumours that the girl had a bad character.

Even, on the girl’s marriage day, the woman and the man, who was the family’s tenant, disrupts the occasion which ultimately leads to cancellation of the marriage.

On hearing the rumours spread by the woman and the man, the would-be groom departs with his family.

However later when he learns that the two had tried to defame his bride, he returns and marries the girl.

Afraz Shah, one of the actors, told Dawn: “We have tried to highlight a vice that exists in our society, and the worst affected are our women. There are many people who try to take advantage of the miseries of the womenfolk.”

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015

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