Born to a poor, landless farmer in the month of the monsoon rains, twins Zara and Tara grow up amongst the fields of wheat and cotton in a remote village in Pakistan. During an afternoon spree of games, Tara is kidnapped from the fields and raped. All seems to be resolved after her parents accept an unexpected marriage proposal for their “dishonoured” daughter. But the nightmare resurfaces when a newspaper clipping emerges, calling the union into question. Determined to rescue her twin, Zara embarks on a harrowing quest for justice, battling keepers of a culture that upholds propriety above all else and braving the unknown dangers of an urban centre. Set in the early 1980s against the backdrop of martial law and social turmoil, Beyond the Fields is a riveting, timely look at profound inequality, traditions that disempower women in our world, and survival as a dance to the beat of a different future.

Aysha Baqir graduated from the world-famous Mount Holyoke College in the US, where she studied International Relations. Her time at college sparked a passion for development and she returned to Pakistan. She quickly learned that the poor needed access to economic resources and networks before they could voice their demands for social justice and she decided to arm herself with an MBA. In 1998, she founded a pioneering economic development not-for-profit organization focused on poverty alleviation through the provision of business development and market-focused trainings for girls and women. In 2013 she relocated to Singapore. She is on the Board of Kaarvan Foundation, an Ashoka Fellow, and member of the Singapore Writers Group.