| One would have to possess a heart of granite not to have been moved by the plight of the Iranian twin-sisters Ladan and Laleh Bajani. Conjoined at the head for all the twenty-nine years of their common life, they showed unbelievable determination in wanting to be separated. They disregarded an insensitive fatwa denouncing such an operation, they defied their foster parents, they consciously took the risk of undergoing a lengthy, complicated operation knowing that it could result in their simultaneous deaths. And in the end, it did. What nature had fused together, the painstaking diligence of medical science could not rend asunder. |
| Their brief, brave lives though have not been a waste, for in their act of self-sacrifice, Ladan and Laleh have provided a parable for others to consider. The Pakistan Government for one could learn from their example. For the past fifty-six years (coincidentally nearly the sum of the twins’ lives), Pakistan has chosen deliberately to remain conjoined at its head with Kashmir. To some observers, this diplomatic deformity is a case history in itself, but not unique in world history, no more than the Bajani sisters were the only conjoined twins in medical history. [EXTRACT] |
| Publsihed in DAWN 30 July 2003, and reprinted in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006) |
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