{"id":1602,"date":"2018-12-03T10:08:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T10:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2018-12-03T10:08:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T10:08:06","slug":"rejected-by-my-family-raped-but-proud-to-be-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/rejected-by-my-family-raped-but-proud-to-be-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rejected by my family, raped – but proud to be gay’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seyeda has been rejected by her family, abused and raped because she is gay – but is determined to be out and proud.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old from Pakistan believes she would have been killed if she had not moved to the UK.<\/p>\n

“I can’t even imagine (what would have happened). I don’t think I would be alive there.<\/p>\n

“But there is no looking back. If people are harassing me, I need to make myself more strong.”<\/p>\n

Seyeda – whose parents died before they discovered her sexuality – was under pressure from an early age to marry a cousin.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t want to because I knew of my orientation,” she told\u00a0BBC Radio 5 Live Investigates.<\/a><\/p>\n

A new report from LGBT domestic abuse charity Galop reveals around one in four of the cases seen by their advocacy service has been abused by family members – while one in ten is at risk of ‘honour-based’ violence or forced marriage.<\/p>\n

‘Bad time’<\/h2>\n

University provided no escape for Seyeda. After a supervisor discovered her sexuality, she says she was forced off her PhD programme, and left without accommodation.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t have anywhere to stay,” she explained. “If you are a woman on your own in Pakistan, you can’t live anywhere.<\/p>\n

“I have uncles and aunts in Pakistan, and I was begging to stay (with them). But they weren’t ready to (let me) – and I was not ready to get married in the way they wanted me to.<\/p>\n

“Once the extended family came to know about my sexuality, I had a bad time.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-46402267<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seyeda has been rejected by her family, abused and raped because she is gay – but is determined to be out and proud. The 42-year-old from Pakistan believes she would have been killed if she had not moved to the UK. “I can’t even imagine (what would have happened). I don’t think I would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[419,424],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forced-marriage","category-honour-based-abuse"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1603,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}