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Rana Habeeb (formerly Nazir) was the wife of Zeedan Nazir who left him for Kate Connor before perishing in the Underworld roof collapse.

Rana arrived in Coronation Street in 2016 to reconnect with her old friend, Alya Nazir. She soon began dating Zeedan, Alya's brother, marrying him in a Nikah ceremony with a registry office wedding following in 2017. Meanwhile, Rana developed feelings for Kate and they engaged in an affair, with Rana confessing to Zeedan in 2018. To get back at her, Zeedan outed her to her strict Muslim parents, causing them to pay Zeedan hush money to stay with Rana in order to save face. Their efforts to control their daughter culminated in an attempted kidnapping, which led Rana to disown them.

After Rana and Kate went public with their relationship, Kate began planning their future. They split up when Rana discovered Kate's secret plan to have sex with Adam Barlow in order to conceive a child for the pair, but they managed to reconcile and get engaged. On their wedding day in 2019, Rana was inside Underworld when the roof collapsed on top of her, having been purposely vandalised by Gary Windass.

Throughout her years in Coronation Street, Rana was a practice nurse at the Rosamund Street Medical Centre. She had an older brother, Imran, with whom she was close.

Biography

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2016-2017: Reconnecting with the Nazirs

In February 2016 Rana sent her old friend Alya Nazir a birthday card and the next day they decided to meet up and have dinner at Nick's Bistro. Rana soon took a shine to Alya's brother Zeedan and the pair began a relationship. However their time together was short due to Rana's flirtatious nature with other men which caused Zeedan to split up with her. In July the couple reconciled.

Zeedan proposed to Rana in November that year, and Rana supported Zeedan when it was revealed that Sharif Nazir, Zeedan's grandfather, had been having an affair with a woman named Sonia Rahman. Zeedan then began to question his beliefs in marriage, and after an awkward meal with Rana's parents, he broke off their engagement. Rana was crushed and felt adamant that this was the end of her relationship with Zeedan, however family friend Leanne Battersby helped reconcile the pair. Zeedan and Rana decided to marry immediately after their reconciliation to seal their love for one another, with Rana's parents Hassan and Saira Habeeb, Yasmeen, Leanne and Nick Tilsley witnessing the Nikah ceremony.

Soon after their marriage, Zeedan expressed his desire to have children, but Rana was less certain. Not wanting to upset her husband, Rana secretly began taking contraceptive pills. A few weeks later, she told Zeedan that she wasn't ready to start a family yet, which he accepted.

2017-2018: Sexuality struggles and affair

In 2017, Rana met Kate Connor when she went over to 6 Coronation Street to help plan Alya's birthday celebration. At Kate's suggestion, they eventually went to a lesbian bar. They became fast friends. Rana assisted Kate and her father, as Johnny Connor was diagnosed with MS.

Later that year, Rana disapproved of Kate hooking up with Imogen Pascoe as a result of playing wing woman. They fell out as Kate accused Rana of being homophobic. After Rana broke up with Kate, Imogen spitefully tipped her off that it was desire for Kate, not homophobia, which Todd Grimshaw overheard. Rana denied it, but Todd set Rosie and Sophie Webster onto her by telling them that Rana needed cheering up. Rana got drunk and proceeded to show Kate how she was feeling by kissing her. Rana pursued Kate, including a final bid on her legal wedding day to get Kate to confess her feelings, so they could work things out. Rana shared an emotional moment with Kate after she crashed her wedding reception.

Zeedan, in another attempt to get Kate and Rana to kiss and make up, surprised Rana by informing her that she would have to accompany Kate to a catering event. They set off in the Speed Daal van that Rana had purchased with her entrepreneurial spirit and encouragement of her husband's culinary aspirations. When the van broke down, Kate confessed her love for Rana, which Rana recipcorated leading to a passionate kiss. Luke Britton discovered that Rana really did have these feelings and put pressure on Rana, in particular, to come clean to Zeedan. Rana remained steadfast in her love for Kate, but struggled to come to terms with her sexual orientation, losing the family she had built with the Nazirs, and the likely rejection by her own family. Michelle Connor became witness to Rana and Kate’s romantic assignation, during her robbery of Viaduct Bistro. Rana was concerned for the welfare of the unknown thief after Kate smashed a bottle over the robber's head and whisked her away to safety. This led to Michelle lending Kate her the keys to her flat at 9 Victoria Court. They finally consummated their affair.

In 2018, Kate lost faith that Rana would tell Zeedan about their affair so that they could be together. Alya, Zeedan and Kate were at the time devastated by the news of Luke's brutal murder. Kate and Rana broke up, so Rana could support Alya and Zeedan. Unable to be with Kate herself, but wanting Kate loved and supported, Rana encouraged Sophie Webster to date Kate.

2018: Coming out and battling homophobia

Even though Rana thought Kate was lost to her, she couldn’t contain her feelings any longer after Luke’s funeral and confessed to Zeedan that she was in love with someone else. Rana got outed by Kate to Zeedan and told her brother Imran that night, after Zeedan refused to let her back in the house. Zeedan later informed her parents, who plotted to pay Zeedan to stay with Rana so that they could keep face in the Muslim community. They presented him with a contract, offering him money to stay married to Rana for a year, giving him the capital to start a cafe. Imran also encouraged the deal after Rana declared Kate was a snake.

At first Rana agreed to stay with Zeedan, but eventually realised that she needed to be with Kate. She and Zeedan agreed to uphold the pretence of the contract, but Kate and Rana eventually got discovered by Alya and Rana's parents Hassan and Saira on the living room couch. Alya proceeded to out Rana to everyone in the Rovers. Rana tried to make amends for dissolving the contract that sold her and with its end, so ended Zeedan’s hush money. Saira tricked Rana into volunteering to accompany her mother to Pakistan to assist her disowned ailing aunt. Rana received Kate’s mother’s protection rune and best wishes for reconciliation with her mother. Thankfully, Yasmeen, Kate, Imran and Zeedan discovered the scheme to kidnap her and sped to keep Rana from boarding a plane to Pakistan. Rana was distraught and angry and her parents disowned her.

Rana continued to try to please everyone but herself. She saved the opening of Speed Daal, by asking Imran to find investors and Imran himself invested. It got worse when Hassan accused Rana of reporting her mother to the police and telling her that he wished she’d never been born. Rana felt betrayed by Kate and went to the station to get her mother released. She forgave her swiftly after realising the truth, though Kate's words about her giving Zeedan false hope resonated.

In May 2018, Kate was left devastated when her brother Aidan Connor committed suicide. Rana packed and went to be with Kate, worsening her rift with Alya.

In August 2018, Rana's father was having a birthday party and didn't invite her. She encouraged Imran to go even though he was reluctant. Her father had a stroke at his party and that led to his death. Before he died, her mother wouldn't let her in to see him. Kate suggested lying to her mum and to tell her that she had broken up with her. Rana adamantly refused and with the help of Billy Mayhew tried to sneak in to see her dad. When that didn't work she ended up lying to her mum, saying things were over between her and Kate. She didn't tell her mum the truth for a while and that led to her moving out. Kate was becoming frustrated at having to lie and hide again. Rana told her mum the truth about her and Kate after Saira said about getting Imran to split his inheritance with her. Her mum eventually came round and asked Rana to go on a six-week cruise with her. She went back to her flat she shared with Kate and Kate told her that if she went on the cruise she wouldn't wait for her. Both women knew that it was an empty threat.

2018-2019: Overcoming her issues and untimely death

Kate and Rana got engaged at the Rovers in November 2018. Both women had brought wedding rings planning to propose, and in a quirk of fate ended up proposing to each other at the same time.

On her wedding day, Rana forgot her rings and rushed back to collect them at the Underworld factory. While she was in the building, the roof collapsed and while all the other employees managed to leave safely, Rana was trapped and badly hurt. Kate and the Connor family rushed back from the Chariot Square Hotel, where despite protests from officials Kate managed to gain access to the destroyed building and her mortally injured fiancée. The two women exchanged their vows, but shortly afterwards Rana died as a devastated Kate lay weeping beside her.

Personality

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Rana entered the street as a confident man eater and party girl. For all her bravado of doing as she wants without her parents' unobtainable approval, she betrayed this facade with her desire to please them. She eagerly received their faint praise for her marriage to Zeedan, his business prospects with Speed Daal, hoped the contract would allow her to reconcile with her parents and falling for their scheme to get to remove her from England to Pakistan. She boldly pursued her love or dreams. She had a very caring, nurturing and supportive side. She had a Muslim upbringing and observed Ramadan. She might have participated additionally in Muslim culturally, but not religiously outside of her Nikah and the moment visiting an Imam on her wedding day, when she was lost and lonely. She took on guilt to self destructive levels and seemed to behave as if nothing was enough to absolve it.

Relationships

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Background information

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Kate and Rana wedding

2019: Promotional image of Kate and Rana's wedding day that never was

The decision to kill Rana Habeeb off on her and Kate Connor's wedding day, after Bhavna Limbachia quit the role, caused some controversy. Some viewers accused the show writers of encouraging the "Bury Your Gays" television trope - which was coined by LGBT critics over the apparent use of queer characters dying early or being killed off instead of their straight counterparts in both film and television globally. This could be as the result of attacks because they were gay, or that they were killed off as their storyline came to its natural conclusion meaning they were no longer necessary. Citing Maddie Heath (Amy James-Kelly) as another example of this following her tragic demise in June 2015. The watchdog Ofcom received 236 complaints from viewers but favoured the side of the soap, and didn’t think her death was a negative portrayal of LGBT relationships to the public.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: ‘We considered complaints that this storyline negatively portrayed gay relationships. In our view, the untimely death of the character was typical of this soap’s dramatic plotlines and would not have exceeded most viewers’ expectations.’ Bhavnia stated that being killed off was at her suggestion. During an interview with This Morning following the scenes being aired, she said that offence was never her, nor the show’s, intent. ‘My decision to leave and be killed off was never meant to offend the LGBT+ community,’ she said. ‘It was made in the same way I’ve tried to portray the character throughout the years, and that’s with truth and integrity, and my decision to leave and have her killed off was made with the decision of two people being in love and their love being pure, regardless of their age, their gender, their sexuality, their religion.’ ‘So the intention was never to offend the LGBT community. It was purely for two people being in love. I guess it was modern-day Romeo and Juliet, or a Juliet and Juliet love story,’ she added.

First and last lines

"So sorry I'm late. Gosh, you must hate me. Phone ran out of juice! 'Scuse me, sorry. Town was a nightmare and then the bus broke down. I was like that to the driver: 'Hey pal, I'm meeting my old mate from uni'". (First line, to Alya Nazir)

---

"All my love. Always." (Final line, to Kate Connor)

Appendices

(To be completed)

List of addresses

Address Duration
19a Victoria Street 11th May 2018 to 20th March 2019


Employment history

Role Institution Duration
Practice nurse Rosamund Street Medical Centre 26th February 2016 to 20th March 2019

See also

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