Pul e Sirat by Mubina Asif

About this novel

Pul E Sirat (Urdu: پلِ صراط) by Muniba Asif Ali is a complete Urdu marriage drama about Mahnoor, a bride humiliated on her very first night. Her husband treats her with cruelty from the start, and back at home her mother senses that something is badly wrong.

The novel opens with Mahnoor sitting on the bed in her bridal clothes, waiting for her husband. Like every girl, she feels a mix of fear and nervousness. Suddenly the door is flung open and Khurram walks in. “What were you sitting here thinking – that I’d welcome you with flowers?” he sneers. “Have you ever even looked at yourself in the mirror? I married you only because my father told me to. Who knows what Papa saw in you.” Mahnoor stares at him in disbelief. He mocks her looks cruelly and orders her out of his room, saying he can’t stand her a moment longer – and that he will soon divorce her and throw her out of his life.

Holding back tears after such humiliation, Mahnoor gets up. She had never imagined that the blue-eyed “prince” she married could be so cruel. She drags herself out of the room, and Khurram quickly shuts the door behind her and lies down. Mahnoor sits against the door and cries over her fate until she falls asleep right there.

شادی کی پہلی رات، شوہر کی حقارت، اور دروازے سے لگ کر روتی دلہن۔

Meanwhile, at Mahnoor’s parents’ home, her mother Yasmeen Begum can’t sleep; strange thoughts keep troubling her. Her younger daughter Saman comes into the courtyard for water and finds her mother still awake. Yasmeen admits her heart feels uneasy – it’s as if Mahnoor isn’t all right, as if she’s in some pain. Saman smiles and reassures her: why worry? Mahnoor must be very happy. “May Allah make it so,” Yasmeen prays silently, sending Saman back to bed while she lies awake.

Muniba Asif Ali writes about rejection, self-worth and a woman’s patience, and the title – “the narrow bridge” – suggests that Mahnoor’s marriage will be a long and painful test.

You can read Pul E Sirat online here or download the complete PDF for free. More by the same writer: Samjhota and Inteqaam Ki Aag, or see all Muniba Asif novels.