A Love Story - Project 2,996

Last year I participated in Project 2,996. This is a web-based tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. I was assigned to write about James Berger, who worked at the World Trade Center for Aon Corporation. It was an honor to have the opportunity to pay tribute to such a brave man. Although the loss of such a loving human being is a great tragedy, his story was so touching that I found it to be very inspirational.

This year’s tribute has left me with quite a different feeling. I haven’t felt this way since the attacks happened six years ago. Intense anger and an overwhelming sense of sadness has shaken me while composing this story.

My choice for the 2007 tribute was Nurul Huq Miah. I chose him because I wanted to honor an immigrant who represents everything that America stands for. In the end I wound up with a lot more than I bargained for.

As I began my research I started to notice that online guest books dedicated to him made references to Shakila Miah and used the feminine pronoun, “her”, as a description. I was a bit confused. Was this is a reference to someone else or were the people making these comments just mistaken because of their unfamiliarity with foreign names?

I didn’t like the answer. It turns out that Shakila Miah was his wife who was also killed in the September 11th attacks. This is how I learned about a beautiful love story and its tragic ending.

The couple were both immigrants from Bangladesh and it is a custom for many Bengalis to be wed in arranged marriages. However, the Miahs were a “love match”. This means that they met outside of parental supervision and fell in love on their own. Naturally when the girl’s parents found out that their daughter was dating someone they were apprehensive and frowned upon the relationship.

In order to communicate with his girlfriend Nurul would leave messages on her answering machine with a deer caller device that is used by hunters. This was his secret signal to her and you could imagine the delight of the young woman whenever she heard it.

The persistence of their love convinced Shakila’s parents to arrange a meeting with the suitor. You have to keep in mind that in Bangladesh society there are many stigmas attached to such courtships. It could be an unbearable embarrassment if the parents are perceived to have lost control over their children in such a manner and many Bengalis would argue that such relationships have corrupted traditional values. So Shakila’s parents showed a very open mind by setting up this meeting.

In an interview with Newsday her father remarked on the overwhelmingly positive impression that Nurul made on his family, “He captured all of our hearts with his behavior. Everybody liked him”. The parents were happy to give their approval and the couple had a traditional Bengali Muslim ceremony attended by hundreds of friends and family.

That’s right, they were Muslim! For all their talk of holy war Al Qaeda has no compunction about killing innocent Muslims. In Afghanistan and Iraq the terrorist group kills more Muslims than “infidels”. The holy war against America is a sham.

It was the United States that intervened in the Suez Crisis to stop Britain and France from seizing Egyptian land illegally. It was the U.S. that helped Saudi Arabia develop its oil reserves without exploitation while European nations plundered Middle Eastern oil. It was the U.S. that helped Muslims in Afghanistan against the atheist Communists. It was the U.S. that bombed the Serbian Christians in order to stop their genocide against the Kosovo Muslims. It was the U.S. that helped two conservative Muslim countries against the aggression of Saddam Hussein’s secular regime. And it was Al Qaeda that killed innocent Muslim Americans like Nurul and Shakila Miah.

After Shakila found employment at the World Trade Center her father suggested that she should look for a better job because Shakila only had a temporary position at Marsh & McLennan. Since she worked only four floors above Nurul there was nothing in the world that could make her leave his side. Every day they went to lunch together and every day they went home together. The couple was never separated. They lived together and died together. In the year and a half that they were married they shared the deepest love that most people will never know throughout their entire lives.



Shakila liked to sing songs like this one written by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.