Mohammed Ali Tipu, from Pakistan's conservative tribal north-west, met his American wife 21 years his senior over the Internet. Now it is only cyberspace that is keeping their love alive.
The pair are sustaining their marriage via emails after Tipu's bride Ann Slayton had to leave his remote home town and return to North Carolina to be with her ailing mother "Each day separated from Ali, my husband, is hell," Slayton, 49, told AFP in an email. "I miss Ali each and every day with such sadness, words cannot express my sadness. I miss him very much."
Tipu, 28, a newspaper page designer, said he was among the first Internet users in Kohat, a dusty gateway town to Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His town lies on the route that security forces say is criss-crossed by al Qaeda and other Islamic militants as they move between remote safe hideouts in the region.
It was at the beginning of 2003, when Pakistani forces were battling al Qaeda militants in the Waziristan tribal belt, that Tipu and Slayton "met" in an Internet chatroom and struck up a friendship. "I was inspired to use the Internet after watching an Indian movie where the hero finds a lover the same way," said Tipu, sitting cross-legged in his small home with open drains running outside the boundary walls.
First, though, he needed to have a telephone line installed at his house. "I started visiting chatrooms, my special interest was Islam. One day I saw the profile of Ann and I felt attracted to her smiling face," he said.
The Christian American grocery shop owner joined the chatroom because she was interested in other religions. She was "very charming" and keen to learn about Islam, said Tipu, who prays five times a day but says he is not a fundamentalist.
"It was not love at first sight. It developed slowly over two years and then we both were immersed in it," Tipu said. Slayton started going to a mosque in the US as they grew closer.
- A meeting of two lost souls meant for each other - Then fired by passion for her Internet lover, Slayton journeyed to what was for her the unseen land of Pakistan in the fall of 2005. She came from North Carolina to Peshawar via Washington, London and Dubai.
"At the airport I was there to receive her. I was in a state of disbelief, I thought a miracle had happened," Tipu recalled. "Ann came out of the airport and I was onto her in a flash. It was as if we had known each other for centuries. She threw her arms open when I walked towards her and I grabbed her and hugged her forcefully.
"She cried on my shoulder and tears rolled down my face too. It was a meeting of two lost souls who were meant for each other and separated only by man-made boundaries." From Peshawar the two drove 80 kilometres (50 miles) to Tipu's home located in the middle of bustling Kohat, where women stay indoors or the few that are seen outside are covered in all enveloping burqa.
"My area is very conservative and there are widespread anti-American sentiments. I was worried about her," Tipu said. The first thing he did was to take Slayton to the local mosque where, in the presence of a mullah, the woman from North Carolina formally embraced Islam.
The next day, they were married in a simple ceremony in the mosque and she fully covered herself according to local tradition. Tipu said that far from being hostile, the local mullahs were filled with joy that "I had brought an American woman to Pakistan and converted her to Islam. It was a very proud feeling for them".
Tipu said his mother and sisters, who cannot speak English, would often sit with Ann and communicate with hand gestures. "They gave her the Islamic name of Fatima," said Tipu. "They got along very well with Ann."
The couple had a brief honeymoon in the nearby hill resort of Hangu, a hub of frequent Muslim sectarian violence where nearly 40 people were killed in a suicide bombing and subsequent clashes in early 2006. From Hangu the couple went to the eastern cultural centre of Lahore.
"We returned to Kohat and Ann said she was really ecstatic to discover the diversity and beauty of Pakistan," Tipu recalled. But their marital bliss was short-lived. While the mullahs threw their support behind the couple, a distant relative of Tipu was unhappy because he thought Tipu had betrayed the customs of his clan by marrying a foreigner.
The couple received threats and police intervened to provide security to them. Meanwhile Ann's mother was sending messages to her daughter to come back home because she had fallen ill and was lonely - as well as worried about her safety. Ann bowed to the pressure and left after just one month. She said she is determined that her time apart from her husband will be as brief as possible, and added that she is not afraid of living in Pakistan.
"I look forward to returning to Pakistan one day soon, God willing. I loved the country, the culture and the Pakistani people. It was a wonderful experience." She has applied for Tipu's immigration papers but the process may take several years - if permission is granted under tight US immigration rules. But Ann remains optimistic. "all will go well as it has so far," she wrote.
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