The Ahmed family immigrated to America from Pakistan,fourteen years ago,when Zubaida was just five years old.
In the beginning,Zubair Ahmed, was very open minded.He never stopped his children from mingling with non Muslim kids or from wearing western clothes.
His behavior changed,once he came back from Saudi Arabia,after performing Hajj°. Suddenly, he became very Islamic and started putting restrictions, especially on Zubaida and Hajrah.

The family of eight had to manage in Zubair Ahmed's salary of a salesman as he did not allow the women of his house to work and Rizwan, Zubaida's brother, could only get a meagre 800 dollars from his odd jobs which he used for his studies.
They lived in a small apartment,in New York, with two rooms and one bathroom. Rizwan had to sleep in the living area, on the lone couch, as Mr. and Mrs. Ahmed got one while Zubaida shared the other room with her sister, Hajrah and her nieces. Hajrah came back to her parent's house two years ago with her daughters,eight years old Khadijah, six years old Amna and three years old Farwah. Her husband divorced her after an abusive marriage of ten years when she could not bore him any sons.
The incident left Naeema,their mother,so shocked that she lost her voice and hearing.

Zubaida wanted to attend medical school and be an ENT specialist so she could treat her mother but instead ended up studying mass communication in a community college.
Zubair Ahmed was against Zubaida attending college and wanted to marry her off as quickly as possible but reluctantly agreed when Hajrah emotionally debated with him, using herself as a reference.

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°Hajj:The fifth pillar of Islam.It refers to the annual Muslims' pilgrimage to Mecca at the last month(Duh al- Hijja)of the Hijri calander(Islamic calendar).
It is a mandatory religious duty for all adult Muslims, to perform Hajj at least once in their lifetime.