As Dar-e-Nijaat continues to spark debate online, lead actor Durefishan Saleem has responded to questions surrounding the drama’s central story — particularly why her character, Zaryab, appears to need Abu Bakr’s help to recover from heartbreak.
The conversation gathered pace after the latest episode, in which Zaryab, a woman once willing to give up her admission to Harvard University to comfort Zamil (Nameer Khan), discovers that her long-time partner and childhood sweetheart has married somebody else without telling her.When Zaryab confronts him, Zamil dismisses their years together as his “era of ignorance”. He says he needs a “pious, pure and innocent” partner and believes God accepted his repentance by giving him his new wife. He tells Zaryab to find someone “like herself”. When she asks whether only a man has the right to repent, he dodges the question.
The fallout soon catches up with Zaryab. She suffers an emotional breakdown, with Abu Bakr (Sheheryar Munawar) arriving to help her up and steady her.
As Zaryab’s story progressed, some viewers questioned whether the drama was suggesting that a woman needs another man to recover from a toxic relationship. Durefishan appeared to address the debate on her Instagram Stories, urging women to heal and find themselves again. “The right person always comes along, and even if they don’t, it is never the end of the world,” she wrote. Sometimes, she added, “finding yourself is the love story you needed all along.”
