The Sun Will Rise: A Desert Girl's Tale

Life is both wonderful and sweet for Leila, a young Muslim girl living in the magical Cholistan desert. Although she has become a woman and must follow the duties her family has bestowed upon her and she comes from a family of poor camel herders, she still finds time to dream, explore, and enjoy the few freedoms that she has been given. It is almost time for her to marry Khalid, the brother of her sister in law, and a wealthy and powerful syed. The engagement is quite an honor for her family, raising their status and giving them much happiness and wealth. Leila herself feels quite pleased with the arrangement due to the impact it has on her mother and father, and she is glad that it is a love match as well as an arranged marriage. Khalid has been nothing but kind to her and his sister, Jasmine, tells her that he will always make her life wonderful. However, on the day before her father leaves to buy the rest of her dowry, Arab slave traders capture her while she is looking for a lost newborn camel. They take her to Multan, one of Pakistan’s grandest cities, where Khalid ironically lives. There, she is bought by Mahsood, a wealthy merchant with a dangerous greed for money, power, and women and who is feared and disliked by many, including her groom and her family for his cruel nature and his unspeakable sins. Immediately, she is forced to live in the small, windowless closet with only table scraps to eat and no freedoms while she works as a slave in the house, cooking, cleaning, and being physically, sexually, and mentally abused by Mahsood. It is a nightmare and though she attempts to escape, she continuously gets caught and punished by her evil master. Luckily, his kind wife, Sakina, and their gentle son, Amir, who are also survivors of his abuse, befriend her. They show her much warmth and love, which makes her feel so safe and her time there somewhat enjoyable and easier to withstand until she and Amir suddenly fall in love. It is forbidden and punishable by death yet she feels as though it is what she has been looking for her whole life so she suddenly must make a choice: Should she follow her duty and her family’s wishes or she should follow her heart and be truly free and happy forever?