Lucknow (Women’s Feature Service) – Nasreen, 32, does not have a second name. A few years ago she had no income either. All that this purdah-clad mother-of-four had was a little experience in stitching. Like countless other Muslim women from conservative homes in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Nasreen, too, was forbidden to step out of her home. Despite living in crushing poverty she was not allowed to look for work to chip in and make things better. For a long time she struggled on but when it became a matter of life and death, Nasreen decided to take some tough decisions. “I decided to defy everyone in my family and grabbed the first job that was offered to me,” she says.

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