Ever since Uzma Ahmed’s biopic, The Diplomat, was released on streaming giant, Netflix, the young survivor is leading all the headlines once again. The story of Uzma is surely nerve-wracking, and the ordeal she faced in Pakistan once she crossed the Wagah Border is unimaginable. The film stars John Abraham helming the role of ‘IFS officer JP Singh’ along with Sadia, Sharib Hashmi, Revathy and a few others.
The Diplomat is the story of Uzma, a young Indian Muslim girl, who was trapped in Pakistan on the pretext of love. What followed after was the brave fight of not just Uzma but Indian diplomat to Islamabad, JP Singh and his colleagues, along with the then External Affairs Minister, late Sushma Swaraj.
When Uzma came back to her country on May 25, 2017, after months of being captive in Pakistan, it was a joyous moment for everyone. The moments of her entering her country crossing the Wagah border were televised, and from that moment, she became the ‘Daughter of India’. Do you know that the biopic changed Uzma’s life for the better? Read on to know more about it.
Uzma Ahmed bought a one-room house and a car with the signing amount of her biopic
After getting out of Pakistan, Uzma Ahmed was approached by producer Rakesh Dang, to make a biopic on her. She was elated with the news and was told never to discuss her story with the media as a biopic would be made on her. As a signing amount and permission rights, Uzma received Rs. 15 lakhs with which she bought a one-room house in Seelampur and a Wagon R car.
The house became her safe place, where she found refuge from the traumas she suffered when she was held captive in Pakistan. She locked herself from the outside world and stayed in her house for the first year and slowly started rebuilding her life from scratch.
Why did Uzma’s parents abandon her?
After Uzma was held captive in Pakistan, her parents never tried contacting her. When she came back, and her ordeal was telecasted on channels, even then, nobody from her family came in front to support the girl. Talking to The Times of India, Uzma shared that her parents had been living abroad and after what happened with her in Pakistan, they broke all ties with her. In her words:
“It’s been 14 years now that I have been living away from my family. My father is an NRI and lives abroad and ever since I’ve moved away, there has been no communication between us. I have always fought all battles by myself but the loneliness eats me up.”
How was Uzma Ahmed trapped in Pakistan?
Uzma was just 22, when she got married to a man, who fathered Falak. It was an arranged marriage, but it failed because of the abuses she suffered in it. After her failed first marriage, Uzma went to Malaysia to do a course in business management. It was there she met Tahir Ali through a friend, who was a taxi driver in Malaysia.
After falling in love with him, Uzma crossed the border to meet Tahir who lived in Buner, one of the remotest parts of northern Pakistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the Afghanistan border. After visiting Buner, she got to know that Tahir was already married with four kids. She was abducted, drugged and forced to marry Tahir at gunpoint. She somehow managed to reach the Indian High Commission of Islamabad, and with the help of JP Singh, she crossed the Wagah border safely and returned to India.
Uzma Ahmed is a brave woman who, despite being subjected to tremendous torture in Pakistan, gathered the pieces of her broken self and restarted her second innings in life.
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