Let's Know Shireen- the Tale of the Dabaang Lady

Accounts of grit and expectation never fail to intrigue us and touch our hearts. Individuals ought to likewise comprehend that they have no influence over the conditions, yet they have all out command over their identity and how their lives ought to be. Amid these things, a few people end up leaving a blemish on our lives. 

Such is the tale of Shireen, who is a lady auto-rickshaw driver from Mumbai, whose story has figured out how to move numerous individuals. Mutual by Humans of Bombay on their Instagram and Facebook pages, the post portrays her journey of how she lost two significant relations throughout her life and how she figured out how to carry on with her life in spite of the considerable number of troubles life tossed at her. 

Shireen was naturally introduced to a traditionalist Muslim family and lost her mom at an exceptionally young age. Her mom, who had hitched a subsequent time, was additionally insulted by society as a result of which she set herself ablaze. 

It was after she lost her sister and after that her marriage as well, Shireen chose to bring her life into her own hands dealing with her three kids to deal with alone, she began to work as an auto-rickshaw driver.

A summary of what the posts say

She was born in a conservative poor Muslim family, and when she was 11, she found her parents fighting every day. It started affecting her. Later her parents got divorced.

Her mom decided to remarry, but it turned out as a scandal. But she was a fearless lady who always got what she wanted. After a few months of the marriage, her mother went out with her brother when a group of men from her community surrounded Shireen's mother. 

They started taunting her regarding her second marriage, pointed fingers at her character as well. They even taunted her brother. This affected her mother deeply. She was in such a bad emotional state at night that she set herself on fire and committed suicide.

For Shireen losing her mother was one of the hardest things, she had to face. But the family was too much strong and finally made out a way to move on in life. After this incident, it was only a year. Soon Shireen's father married both of the sisters.

Life in her in-law's house was also not easy. She was close to her sister-in-law. She saw how her in-laws bullied her for dowry. Once when the sister-in-law was pregnant, they poisoned her. Her death moved her again. She was shattered after losing two people she had loved the most. 

Shireen used to be dull and without happiness all day. When she got pregnant, and her son came into the world, she had no choice but to move on, for the sake of her son.

Soon after, Shireen and her husband too started having problems. After the birth of her third child, he refused to take care of them. His husband had the only desire to get physically intimate with her. And when he was done with that, he gave her talaq abruptly. This made her take the kids and leave the house.

She was left alone on the streets for days. She couldn't manage to feed 3 mouths. It was painful, but she was not to lose hope. She had to buck up. 

She started her new journey since then. She began by setting up a small biryani stall. All was going well, but one day the BMC came and tore it down. Shireen's husband was a rickshaw driver, so when she had no other option left, she gathered all her savings and decided to drive a rickshaw.

She started earning well by driving a rickshaw. But she had to face challenges too. There were lots of incidents where people used to harass her. They would even go to the extent of abusing her. People left no chances to put her down. They had a doubt on her simply because she was a woman. 

Other rickshaw drivers used to even purposely bang into her auto so that they could scare her. This way, they thought they would be able to stop her from taking fares. But Shireen faced a lot of hardships to reach there, and she was not among the ones who would quit so easily. She didn't let it bother her ever.

Now it's been a year since, and her income keeps the house running. She is doing her job diligently without caring about the obstacles. She tries to give her kids all that they ask for, on her own. 

She wants to buy them a car, and she hopes that she will be able to do that soon. It is not that she had only bad experiences with customers. She has many passengers who make her feel great. They keep her motivated. Some claps for her, tip her well, and even some good-hearted customers hug her sharing the warmth of humanity. 

She recalls one incident when a man sat in her rickshaw. At the first place, he didn't realize she was a woman, and he addressed Shireen as 'bhaiya,' which is a brother. But soon he realized that it was a mistake and instead made Shireen proud by calling her dabbang lady. 

That's what she believes she is. She wants other women to know that they can be one too!

She says that women are capable of anything and they don't have to live by the rules of others. 

She prays that no one should suffer like her mother or sister. So with every passenger she takes, every compliment she gets and every wish she fulfills for her children -- she knows that she is doing this not just for herself, but for every woman who is out there, suffering in silence and struggling to find a way of her own. 

It is one story of Shireen. But there are many more like her who are battling the society and their stringent laws somehow or the other. There is pay parity, there is abuse, and there is a constant struggle to live life on own terms. For all those women, Shireen is an inspiration, she is hope. A hope to not quit and keep the struggle on with head held high.