But when I met Ruksana, the widow of Firdaus, then 25 and soon to give birth to her second child, she hugged me and cried and told me about the pain of losing my husband. She was cumbersome and desperate to speak up, and could open up to another woman. While her story deeply saddened me, I felt a responsibility to tell it. I saw Ruksana’s two-year-old daughter hugging her father on a metal bed, kissing and touching his face for one last time, before he was forever separated from them and returned to the hospital with another empty bedframe. ,
Firdous Ahman Khan’s weeping wife, Ruksana (centre), with other women, holding a picture of her dead husband – image captured by Masrat Zahra
