Comparing Zoya and Khirad

Khirad and Zoya situations have much in common; they are roughly the same age, both live in single parent households and both of their academic credentials reflect the desire to honor the wishes of their deceased parent. While Khirad's father always wanted her to gain a Masters in Mathematics, Zoya's mother wanted her to become a doctor, thus marking the way for both to leave the private sphere and enter the public life. From this point forward, however, the characters start to move poles apart.

Khirad, ultimate goal for pursuing higher education changes drastically, from honoring her fathers wishes it becomes the desire to ingratiate herself with her husband. Thus even while coming to the public sphere, Khirad remains a subject of the patriarchy, unable to govern herself beyond the guiding hand of the men in her life. As a result the locus of control of her life comes from outside and Kirad is not responsible for any of the mishaps that happen to her. Either they occur due to evil schemes of a deviant mother-in-law, or her husband's failure in protecting her. Thus Khirad is never empowered and till the end she relies on religion, her maternal feelings and her virtue to prove her worth. Naivety becomes the defining feature of Khirad as well as her most worthy attribute. This successfully hampers any hopes of her prospering beyond the domestic sphere, accentuated by the fact, that when there is no man to please she does not carry on with her studies.

On the other hand, Zoya while pursing medicine for her mother's sake, is early on expected to wholeheartedly embrace the profession. As she is inspired by another female to do so, from the get go it seems her actions are not entirely dependent on the whims of a patriarchal figure. Unlike Khirad her youth, her femininity or her naivete cannot be used a as a crutch for her to blame her shortcomings on. When Zoya makes a mistake, Dr Ahmer does not takes into account that maternal feelings for the patient might have prevented her from action. She is held accountable for her actions, and she emerges as a person who is beyond mere"katchi mathi" waiting for a man to mold her, but becomes a guardian herself. Thus Dr Ahmer informs her that she should become fully accountable for her actions, conscientious of there consequences and serious about her chosen career, or leave the profession entirely. Thus, while democratizing gender roles, Zoya's profession also helps changing her paradigm of herself and her femininity, as she can no longer rely on it as a jail free card. As a result, not only is Zoya allowed to inhabit a public life that allows her if not full (as she is still under the sway of the patriarchal figure of Dr. Ahmer), considerable autonomy as a female doctor, it also forces her to give up her femininity as a excuse, empowering and making her the central locus of control of all her actions. Conclusively, unlike Khirad, Zoya becomes much more than a "masoom", "seedhi sadhi", "simple" girl made to prosper only in the domestic sphere, instead her  coming into the public sphere forces her to become a working professional who can be both feminine while being clever and rational.