Operation: Dard and Devotion

Epilogue | Dard & Devotion

She had gone back to the drawing board, so to speak, and planned a full academic year's worth of material from scratch. Once she had been satisfied with her handiwork, she had submitted it for review. The administrators had been surprised that she had managed to complete the task so quickly in just two weeks time. After a few more weeks of waiting, Hayat was notified that the board not only approved of the course she had planned, but that they had also loved the idea.

Thus, Hayat had become the university's inaugurate professor of The Religion of Terrorism, her own creation. From then onwards, she had never felt more motivated to teach others about such a touchy topic. To the surprise of those who knew her best, she had gradually come to terms with her past and was not as uncomfortable as she had been when discussing extremism. In fact, she did not regret the role as she felt it was her social responsibility, especially her out of all people, to educate others.

Over time, she had taught herself to live in the present, especially with a new responsibility on her shoulders.

The household had only consisted of Hayat and her parents, while both of her happily married brothers would visit nearly every weekend. With the exception of her frequent pen pal, Tala, and sometimes Saad, she had cleansed her mind from everyone who had sought refuge in her head.

Including Ahsan.

With every tangible bit of Ahsan's memory out of her sight, she had gradually eased her way into having him out of her mind.

But, Hayat is not heartless for doing so.

She was simply looking out for her own sanity and there was nothing wrong with that. When she had regained control of her mental health, albeit it had taken a few years to achieve, she had made it a choice to not think of anything that would rust her mind. At least, she did not allow anything, or anyone, to dwell in her mind for more than a few seconds.

Life was just easier that way.

"Good morning everyone," Hayat greeted as a handful of students mumbled in response. "Are you all ready for finals in two weeks?"

The answer to her question came in the form of groans.

"Oh come on, at least your final in this class is just a group presentation." She flipped through her file for the list of groups and ran her finger down the column. "Derek, Victoria, Lucas, Ophelia and Kara - you guys still haven't submitted your presentation outline. It was due online before class today. Do you not have a topic yet?"

The students in question looked at each other, mentally signaling one another to be the spokesperson for the group.

"Well, we sort of have one..." Lucas admitted sheepishly, straightening himself in his seat.

"So...where's the outline?"

"Actually, Dr. Hayat," Kara called out, glaring at her group member, and Hayat looked in her direction. "We don't have a topic yet."

Hayat fought the urge to roll her eyes. She had meticulously described all of the project details in the rubric and some students were still not cooperating. She shuffled through a few papers before retrieving the presentation guidelines.

"Okay, so, you were asked to choose any event or person that is related to terrorism and present all sides of the issue. You can present a mass murder like the Armenian and Srebrenica genocides, or you can present targeted attacks like the 2014 APS shooting in Pakistan or the 2008 Mumbai attacks. You can even talk about a terrorist leader or an infamous kidnapping that was tied to extremist activities. Remember, this is not a presentation to persuade, but to inform. You need to discuss multiple sides of the issue. You really have free reign of what you want to do. And, unfortunately and fortunately, there are plenty of topics to choose from. Does that give you a better idea?"