'Poisoned hearts' got no room for mothers.

KARACHI -- It was a warm and windy day at the Bilquis Edhi Welfare Shelter Home for Mentally Disturbed Women in North Nazimabad. The little almond trees planted by Faisal Edhi swayed in the wind. 'Soon these almond trees will grow big and strong offering cool umbrella-like shades to sit under. Then these winds, too, will turn into a breeze,' said Waseem Baji, one of the senior staff members, at the shelter home.

She also spoke about the other trees on their grounds. 'We also have neem and eucalyptus, jujube, tamarind, chiku [sapodilla] and jamun [java plum] trees here. Faisal [Edhi] just loves big shady trees,' she said.

This Bilquis Edhi Welfare Shelter Home has some 1,300 women. Most of them are elderly mothers. The talk about shady trees earlier also makes one think about mothers. It won't be wrong to compare mothers to fruitful trees with shade. But sometimes these fruitful trees can also be attacked by termites. In the case of mothers at the Bilquis Edhi Welfare Shelter Home, their own families turned out to be the termites ailing the trees.

Shagufta Kamal has been living at the Shelter Home for 10 to 15 years. She is about 42 years old now and was first brought here by her father. 'I was told that I had lost my mind after my mother passed away and my father had no other option,' she said.

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Later, when she was better, her older sister found a nice match for her and married her off. She stayed with her husband for some years, but then he also brought her back when she started fighting with her mother-in-law.

She also has a child but he is still young to have a say in these matters. 'So I am here and my family is there,' she said.

Naureen Khan, another woman at the Shelter Home, said that she didn't fight like Shagufta. 'I wish I could fight. Then I would not have accepted my fate the way I have,' she said.

Naureen was sent here 10 years ago by her three sisters-in-law, her brothers' wives, who didn't want to keep her. 'I got divorced when my daughter was three and my son was only one years old. My ex-husband took my children from me and sent me to my brothers. I never approached the court for my children's custody because if I had got them where would I have taken them? There was not even room for me at my brothers' house,' she said.

Naheed Bano has four grown-up children - two sons and two daughters.

'When I was living at home, not a day would pass by when my...