🎙️ Her Side of the Story: Academics

Ruqayya and Ramsha’s Her Story: Degrees, Dreams & Double Standards

🎙️ Ruqayya’s POV – Opening Monologue

“You need to study so you can stand on your own two feet one day.”
That’s what Ammi always said, especially when Abba was in one of his moods and the house fell silent in fear.
So I did what every obedient South Asian daughter does.
I stayed up late. I coloured the margins of my textbooks with dreams.
I topped the board.
And then…
I graduated with distinction.
And the day I walked across the stage with my degree in hand, guess what the aunty next door asked my mother?
“Mashallah! But now we must find a boy, na?”

All that hard work, all those all-nighters, reduced to a line in a biodata.
A degree is only a decoration—until it makes you too intimidating to marry.

I used to think success was about climbing up.
Now I know, for women like me, it’s also about surviving the fall.

🎙️ Ramsha’s POV – Following Up

“You study so much… no boy will want you.”
That was my nani’s favourite line whenever I came home with my report card.
She would say it with a laugh—but her eyes said she meant it.

I was the ideal daughter on paper.
Top scores. Good manners. Never talked back.
But when I told them I wanted to become a surgeon, they said,

“And when will you marry, beta? You can’t do both.”

So I compromised.
Switched to dentistry.
It was “safer.”
It wouldn’t interfere with shaadi season.

But here’s what they don’t tell you—
You can give them everything…
And they’ll still say it wasn’t enough.
That you weren’t enough.

🎧 Podcast Segment Begins – “Academics”

Ruqayya:

“We’re not here to tell girls not to study.
We’re here to ask why, even when we do everything right, the outcome feels so wrong.”

Ramsha:

“Today’s episode is for every girl who’s been told her degree is an ‘achievement’ but her ambition is a ‘problem’.”

🎧 Guest 1 – Meher’s POV

Meher’s Voice – soft-spoken, warm, hesitant at first:
“I was in the middle of my PhD when my rishta came through.
He was a family friend.
Our mothers agreed.
I said yes—because saying no felt… dangerous.

I moved into a house where they told me I studied too much.
They called me arrogant because I used English.
They told me my research was ‘nonsense.’
So I stopped.

They say I’m lucky.
That I’m married.
That I have a house and kids.

But every now and then, I wake up in the middle of the night and I remember that girl with big dreams in her eyes.
And I wonder if she’d recognise me.”

🎧 Guest 2 – Fariha’s POV

Fariha’s tone – biting honesty, edge of sarcasm:
“I got a full scholarship to Harvard.
Do you know how hard that is?
But my fiancé said:

‘What kind of girl studies abroad alone? You’ll become modern.’
So I stayed. For him. For love. For approval.

Guess what?
Two years later, he left me for a girl who did go abroad.
He said she was ‘independent, exciting, fun.’
The very things he asked me not to be.

So now, I’m not married.
I’m not at Harvard.
And I’m not bitter.
I’m just done sacrificing for people who never clapped for me to begin with.”

🎧 Guest 3 – Sana’s POV

Sana – playful, confident, proud of her story:
“I dropped out of med school in my third year.
Not because I couldn’t handle it.
But because I didn’t want it anymore.

I started a blog.
Wrote about desi girl mental health.
People called me lazy. Said I was wasting my brain.

But that blog now has over 50,000 readers.
And last month, I gave a TEDx talk.

My value was never in the degree.
It was always in the voice they tried to quiet.”

🎙️ Ramsha’s Closing Words

“We’re tired of applause that only lasts until we choose ourselves.
Education should be a doorway—not a trap.”

🎙️ Ruqayya’s Final Reflection

“To the girl studying by candlelight…
To the one arguing with her father about switching majors…
To the one applying for jobs while her relatives ask about marriage—

We see you.
We are you.
And your story deserves to be heard.”