Not Easily Washed Away

Not Easily Washed Away is the true story of a young girl who was born to a Muslim family in Pakistan. She suffered through sexual, mental and physical abuse for fifteen years, perpetrated by her father, Abdulla. Laila shares her pain with the reader, sparing no details of her ordeal as a child, teenager and young adult. Laila decides to take advantage of her father's incestuous addiction by having him acquire a visa for her to the United States, where she will rid herself of her putrid past. She soon realizes her father's plan is to keep her in Pakistan for himself. Laila decides to take fate into her own hands by turning the tables on her father, now living in America. Laila manipulates him into marrying an American to acquire a visa to the United States. She arrived in Washington State to start a new life away from her father, but she is unable to stop the incestuous relationship with her father. Life is even worse for Laila; twenty years old, depressed, and worried about her family's fate back in Pakistan if she leaves home. Laila's life begins to change when her younger sister arrived from Pakistan and she meets a Christian, Jamaican man at college. Laila realizes she has feelings for him and when he confronts her about the abuse she tells him everything. He tries to convince Laila that she can be strong and escape her abusive father and stepmother by running away with him.Since the story written in first person, the reader directly sees the psychological impact of the abuse and how the abuser manipulates the victim into cooperating. We see the psychological costs of being abused-denial, depression, mental splitting, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, alcohol abuse, hopelessness, shame, and fear of harm to her family-but gradually we also experience Laila's struggle. Set in a Muslim society where the young female victim knows her word will not be believed in preference to that of her "good" Muslim father, the story could have happened anywhere. The abuse is sickening and saddening but it is real.