LAHORE-The concept of women being in the kitchen is a bit too old. In the wake of this concept, Huma Mobin, creative manager in an advertising agency, decided to go on her honeymoon without her husband. Yes, this is not a typo. She indeed did go without her husband Arsalaan Sever Butt, who is an architect with his own firm. Arsalaan’s visa was rejected due to some strange reasons, which included not justifying the purpose of travel. Little did the couple, residing near Cavalry Ground in Lahore, know they would become the most talked about people on social media in a month’s time.
Talking to The Nation, Huma shed light on all the buzz around the couple. “I’m still numb. We had no idea this would go viral. My personal Facebook account crashed twice. To divert the traffic, I started a blog named ‘Outside Girl’. I have been receiving interview requests from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Iceland, Norway, Sweden etc. I have been taken on air by radio stations in India and Australia. The story was first published in BuzzFeed India, and from there it caught attention of Times of India, India Today, Telegraph, Huffington Post, BBC etc. The best thing that can come out of this is us collecting all these articles, making a coffee table and showing this to our kids in future, telling them how cool we used to be.”
Huma credited her mother-in-law for making her a more powerful woman and helping her breaking traditional stereotypes which exist in our part of the world. “We have always been fond of breaking stereotypes. We literally danced on our wedding day, and had solo performances. My mother-in-law, who is a working woman herself, has always backed me. She and my father-in-law accompanied me to Greece. They did not make me miss my husband at all. My father-in-law took care of all my clothing line, and with my mother-in-law, I had a lot of fun there. We partied till late in the night, we shared the room together and she took most of my pictures, which have gone viral. She is the nicest person I have come across, and I cannot think of better in-laws.”
Arsalaan Sever Butt was surprised by his Schengen Visa rejection. “I have a very strong travel history. It was very shocking for me, since I had been given visa thrice. I was the last person in the family who could have thought of the visa rejection. When I had applied for the visa for the first time, I had fear of rejection, but after it had been given three times. Since the Paris attacks and the attacks in Turkey and Belgium, maybe the worth of our green passport is not the same anymore. It is very depressing for peaceful citizens like us to face this situation. Our country’s image has been dented for no reason at all. The government should look into this issue.”
Huma Mobin and Arsalaan Sever Butt have been married for seven months now, and first went to their honeymoon in Maldives. The couple plans to have more tours together when their first anniversary comes.
