| Afia Masood | |||||||||||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Meryl Fernandes | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2009–2012 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 3921 29 December 2009 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 4441 7 June 2012 | ||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Diederick Santer (2009) Bryan Kirkwood (2010) | ||||||||||||||||
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Afia Masood (also Khan) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Meryl Fernandes.
Afia appeared in five episodes between 29 December 2009 and 5 January 2010, and returned on 18 November 2010. This is Fernandes' second role in EastEnders, her first being a schoolgirl in 1993. Due to Fernandes' character initially being a guest, the character was not announced. Afia was introduced as a love interest for Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel). Her father was later introduced as Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti) who was the former husband of Tamwar's mother, Zainab (Nina Wadia). Tamwar and Afia's wedding was voted best wedding at the Inside Soap awards 2011. Afia is described as "adventurous and straight to the point, doesn't sugar-coat the truth, and doesn't follow everyone else." She has also been described as "slightly erratic" and "aloof". It was announced in May 2012 that Fernandes had finished filming her final scenes and that Afia would leave EastEnders in June. She departed on 7 June 2012.
Afia is first seen attending Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) and Amira Shah's (Preeya Kalidas) Mehndi celebration. Afia's friend Zulekha (Lisa Shah) gives Tamwar Afia's mobile number, though he thinks it is Zulekha's, and arranges a date. He is surprised when Afia turns up instead, and she says he is cute in a "geek chic" way. Afia contacts Tamwar later in 2010 and arranges to meet up. After meeting Afia's father, Tamwar's parents forbid him to see Afia as her father was Zainab's former husband whose family set her on fire. Tamwar ignores them and goes on to marry Afia. Masood and Zainab soften towards Afia and buys Tamwar and Afia the Argee Bargee restaurant. Afia's father marries Zainab, and he starts to control and abuse her. Yusef starts a fire at the local bed and breakfast and dies in the blaze while leaving Tamwar badly disfigured.