In 2015, Tina Dabi and Athar Aamir-ul-Shafi Khan should have been in the news for finishing 1st and 2nd in the UPSC exams respectively, but they trended for a completely different reason. Tina was trolled all over the internet for dating a Muslim man. But as they say, love always finds a way. On Saturday, the 24-year-old IAS officer married the love of her life in Pahalgam.
Tina and Athar got married in a small ceremony attended by close friends and family but a couple of years ago, this would have seemed impossible. The couple met during their training at the Department of Personnel and Training office in Delhi and they fell for each other almost immediately. However, what should have been a sweet love story was turned into a social media outrage after Tina became the first Dalit woman to top the civil service exams in 2015. Abuses were hurled and she was subjected to some nasty social media trolling for being in love with a man of a different religion.
“It’s as if I had committed a crime by falling in love with someone who is not the same religion or caste as me,” said Tina in an interview. But perseverance finally pays and the couple held on to each other to finally come out as winners.
Internal and Featured Image: Facebook