Free, fierce, and feminist: It’s time to reclaim the churail March 6, 2021, 9:40 PM IST Moni Mohsin was born and raised in Lahore. Author of the best selling social satire, Diary of A Social Butterfly and Tender Hooks, she is currently based in London. She is married and has two children. LESS... MORE I could tell who she was from her wicked giggles. No respectable woman laughs like that. As I walked further from my village on that dark moonless night, her peals of laughter rang out. She was following me. I was on a narrow, deserted path between two fields. She was close enough for me to hear her panting breath and the bells jingling on her broken, twisted ankles. She wanted me to turn around, to look at her crazed, bloodied face, her tangled hair. But I knew I mustn’t. She would have me then. My heart was hammering, but I forced myself to walk on, to not show fear. All the while, I was reciting the Quran under my breath, begging Allah to protect me from evil. Just as I thought she was going to pounce, two things happened. The moon came out from behind a cloud and the lane opened up onto a road where I could see people walking ahead of me. I hurried towards them and at once she fell away, slinking back into the shadows from where she’d come.’