Chapter 15

Musarrat's plan works. Zunaria is hidden in Atiq's office. When the militiawomen come to take the prisoner, Atiq tells them that Zunaria is his wife. They bring her along and make her sit in the specially reserved wives and children section. Zunaria doesn't want to go but Atiq tells her that she has to if she wants to be free. He also tells her to wait for him after the assembly. However, when it's over, Atiq cannot find her and he becomes instantly depressed. He goes home and collapses. He then has a dream that Zunaria was there, but when she took off her burqa, it was really his wife with half her face blown off. I think that this proves that Atiq really does feel guilty. I don't think he should have switched places with his wife and the prisoner. He didn't even know Zunaria and look where it got him, alone. He eventually goes completely mad and starts stripping women of their burqas in the town looking for Zunaria. The town turns into an angry mob and kills Atiq. I'm really not surprised by what happens to him because I think his wife being executed falsly, and the woman he was obsessed with not waiting for him was just the final straw for him. If the mob wouldn't have killed Atiq, I think he probably would have died of anxiety or something like that.