Faridabad girl Samiya Arzoo's family opens up about her wedding to Pakistani cricketer Hasan Ali

These might not be the most cordial of times for Indo-Pak relations but at least two families on either side of the border have been able to put all that aside. Pakistani cricketer Hasan Ali married Faridabad-based flight engineer Samiya Arzoo yesterday in Dubai. The nuptials had generated a fair amount of curiosity in both the countries after the wedding was announced by the cricketer’s family last month.However, not much had been known about Samiya except for the fact that she belonged to Haryana and lived in Dubai. Speaking to us before leaving for Dubai earlier this week, Samiya’s brother Akbar Ali told us, “The two have known each other since last year. They met in Dubai when Hasan was there for a tournament and told the families earlier this year.”
Samiya’s family hails from Nuh in Haryana and her father Liyaqat Ali retired as a Block Development Officer working with the Haryana government. They have been settled in Faridabad for over 15 years now, where Samiya grew up with her six siblings. After doing her schooling from the city, she earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from a Faridabad-based private university and is currently working for an airline in Dubai. The family says they were not apprehensive about a Pakistani groom. “We have family settled in Pakistan. My great grandfather’s brother had migrated to Pakistan during the partition and that side of the family has lived there since. We have stayed in touch with them over the years, so we know she has family there too,” says Akbar.
25-year-old Hasan has played just under a hundred games for Pakistan in a three-year international career. He is the fourth Pakistani cricketer to marry an Indian after Zaheer Abbas, Mohsin Khan, and Shoaib Malik. The cricketer had attracted criticism from Indian fans last year after he performed an elaborate military salute-style-dance at the Wagah Border. However, Samiya’s family doesn’t want Indian fans to colour their opinion of Hasan based on that. “He has been very respectful of India and Indian cricketers in the past. He even extended invites to several Indian cricketers for the wedding. He loves cricket and he loves his country. That is all it was, an expression of that love,” Akbar tells us. The family also doesn’t want to connect this wedding – coming at a time when the relations between India and Pakistan are particularly strained – to politics. Samiya’s father Liyaqat Ali says, “It is a meeting of two families. These two have been friends for a while and now want to be life partners. We don’t want to comment on the politics between the two countries because the wedding is separate from that. We hope we can all co-exist peacefully.”
Ever since the wedding was announced last month, a number of fake photos purportedly of Samiya, have been doing the rounds on social media. Many were even picked up by news portals on both sides of the border. The family says it found the entire thing quite amusing. Akbar says, “Both Hasan and Samiya wanted some privacy and not much media coverage around this so we respected that. But it was so funny to see the fake photos and social media accounts.” The nikaah took place in Dubai yesterday and was attended by friends and family from both sides as well as a few leading cricketers from Pakistan. Sources claim that Hasan had invited Indian cricketers such as Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni, as well, but none of them turned up as most are busy in a series in the West Indies and others avoided the function given the political climate. “I would love it if some Indian players come to the ceremony in Dubai. The contest is on the field and not off it,” Hasan had told a Pakistani daily last month.