She Left for 'Freedom.' Now She's Alone.

In a world that applauds breaking free, one Kashmiri woman’s story reveals what’s lost when love, loyalty, and home are traded for independence.

- Syed Majid Gilani

Nahid wasn't always like this. Yawar remembers the early days. How she'd laugh at his jokes, hold his hand when they crossed the street, text him sweet nothings even if he was just in the next room. She used to be warm, light-hearted, easy to be around. He thought they'd grow old together. That's how it usually begins, doesn’t it?

“She changed slowly,” he says, his voice low, like he's afraid to disturb something. “Like winter coming in one quiet morning.”

It didn't happen overnight. But one day, she stopped sharing meals with him. Then she stopped smiling when he walked into the room. She started answering calls in the middle of their dinners, conversations stretching late into the night. He thought it would pass. It didn’t.

And then came the words that always signal the beginning of the end: "I need space.”

Yawar isn't perfect. But those who know him describe him as steady. A man who works hard, shows up, and doesn't look elsewhere. He bought Nahid a car when she asked. He paid for her classes. Took her on trips. “He never even raised his voice,” a neighbour once said. “All he wanted was for her to be happy.”

But happiness, it seems, meant something different to Nahid. Something noisier. Something shaped by YouTube vlogs and influencer captions. Her social media was a world Yawar never got to see. For years, she kept him blocked. He thought she wasn’t online. She was. Just not with him.