Not wearing sindoor and mangalsutra almost got me and my husband evicted from our apartment

Picture for representational purposes only. Photo Courtesy: YouTube/ VidzCafe

Can we for once just stop obsessing over what a woman should look like, behave like, and do after marriage? What is it about this union that demands women to robotically transform themselves in a blink of an eye? I probably will never understand.

I am one of those women, who really doesn't feel the need to display her marital status on her sleeve, or on her forehead for that matter. And I never thought that it would pose a problem since I am a Muslim by birth and in my culture women don't really wear anything to indicate that they are married.

However, after I fell in love with a boy of a different faith and married him, things changed dramatically for me. And it had nothing to do with my in-laws demanding me to wear a sindoor or a mangalsutra. Turns out, my neighbours just couldn't bear to see me without the traditional emblems.

After tying the knot, I moved into a new apartment with my husband--blissfully ignorant to the snarky comments made behind our backs by our neighbours. Even though, they had no clue about our personal lives, they had a problem with an 'unmarried' couple living right next door.

They assumed that we were unmarried because of my sindoor-free and mangalsutra-free appearance. So, being an active member of the moral police squad they instantly contacted the RWA. However, when they got to know that we were married, their surprise knew no bounds.

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They just couldn't comprehend why a married woman would try to not look married. And that's when they were informed that we were a couple with an inter-religion marriage. Though, it should have soothed their curiosity, this new piece of information only piqued their interest. They just couldn't believe it.

What they did next made things worse for us. This very nosy couple decided to contact my landlord and urged him to gather proof whether we were actually married. And that's when we he called us asked us to give a copy of our wedding card to him as proof!

Imagine that!

Though, I was extremely angry with the way things progressed, I didn't have much choice but to comply. Fearing that my husband and I would get evicted from the apartment--we so tastefully decorated a few days ago--I instantly went over to my landlord's house to submit our wedding card.

But, this has only made my determination stronger. I refuse to let such elements bulldoze me into submitting my will. I love my husband and I really don't feel the need to display my affection for him to the world. Not with a mangalsutra and not with sindoor,

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