IT may have been a case of love at first sight - but it turned out to be short-sighted.
For some Orang Asli women in Kelantan, it was not a happily-ever-after story when they fell head over heels with foreign workers, and later married them. The men came from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Myanmar to work in plantations in Gua Musang, Kelantan.
Kosmo! reported that the relationship finally ended following pressure from the families.
“I admit that I was attracted to his charm,” said a woman known only as Azira, 22.
She claimed that the Indonesian plantation worker had persuaded her to run away with him.
“After almost a week following my Indonesian boyfriend to another state, I returned home,” she said, adding that she broke off the relationship after family pressure. She then married an Orang Asli instead.
Another Orang Asli woman, known only as Julia, 20, said she fell in love with an Indonesian who worked at a plantation in Lojing, Kelantan.
“After six months, we parted ways. We did not get married as my family was against it,” she said.
As for Milah, 26, she said she was left by her Bangladeshi husband after eight months of marriage. “He left for his home country and never returned.
“I was suffering because I never received any financial support from him as he only prioritised his family in Bangladesh,” she said.
> He is only 14 years old, but Mohamad Irfan Danial Mohamad Zailani took on the responsibility of being the wali (guardian) for his elder sister’s nikah (solemnisation).
As he recited the marriage pronouncement, he broke down in tears. Guests and the bride also ended up crying, Harian Metro reported.
The boy, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, said he was asked to be the wali as he was the only one in the family who was eligible as his father had died in 2015.
“When I was asked to be the wali, I was fine with it. But on the wedding day, I got nervous. With the help of the Ustaz who shared the text, I got it done,” he said.His sister Intan Nuranissa, 25, said that Mohamad Irfan had initially refused to be the wali.
“However, on the morning of the wedding, we were surprised when he agreed to it. While he was reading the text, I could see he was tearing up. His voice was breaking. That got us emotional as well,” she said.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
