She was a new employee at the company when we became friends.
“Are you married?” she asked me.
“No, I’m divorced.”
“Same,” she replied.

I was surprised because she looked so young.
“I have a girl.
It was an arranged marriage.
He was an only child,
And he was such a mama’s boy.
He did everything she requested.
He followed her wishes blindly.
I was technically married for a year.
I spent 6 months at my parents’ house.
He was travelling, so my daughter and I stayed with my parents.
He didn’t keep in touch.
“I’ll get you another wife who’s even better than her. Who does she think she is!” his mother would tell him.
Things were okay when he’d be away from his mother.
He did everything she asked.”

She told me that they decided to get a divorce because there were too many problems.
At first, his mother told her and her family,
“You’re not going to get anything back.
We don’t owe you anything.”
To which they replied,
“We agreed on a dowry and we have a list of her properties. We'll take it to court.”
Her mother-in-law stopped resisting them when she heard of the possibility of a lawsuit.

Her daughter was 3 months old.
“I only care about my daughter staying with me,” she said.
The divorce procedures started.
Her father insisted on her giving up custody of her daughter.
“Why would I do that, baba?”
“It’s just paperwork. It’s so you get your things back.”

When she went to the apartment to collect her things,
She found that her mother-in-law had built a wall in front of the apartment door.
It was to deny that this apartment ever existed.
But the neighbors told the police officers that there was an apartment behind the wall.
She finally got into the apartment, but his mother had taken everything.

After the divorce, her ex-husband and his mother got custody of her daughter.
She couldn’t see her for three months.
She would ask her father for help,
“I’ll get her for you,” he’d say.
But he didn’t do anything.
He thought his daughter was still young and had potential.

“Why tie yourself down with a kid when you’re divorced?
No one will want to marry you.
It’s better that her father and grandmother raise her.
She’d belong to them and you could finally live your life freely.”

She didn’t get the chance to bond with her daughter because they took her away when she was only two months old.
She was just a tiny baby.
The mother tried visiting her daughter at her ex-mother-in-law’s house,
But she treated her badly.
“Forget that you ever had a daughter.
You already took your belongings.
He’s going to get married and live his life.”

She told her father that she wanted to file a custody lawsuit so she’d get her daughter back.
“A lawsuit? You want to go to court? Impossible!”
She was quiet for a minute, then she told me,
“I hate my father.
He loves me more than he loves my daughter.
I love my daughter dearly.
I wish I had held on to her and filed a lawsuit.”