She grew up like most teenage girls in Britain \u2013 coveting the latest fashions, experimenting with make-up and hanging out with her mates after school.<\/p>\n
Her Muslim parents, who ran a shop, were respected members of the community. Ayesha, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, was always encouraged to follow her dream of becoming a police officer.\u00a0But immediately she turned 18, she was taken on a family holiday to Pakistan \u2013 and her carefree life would never be the same again.\u00a0Days after arriving, she was forced by her father and two uncles into marrying a stranger.<\/p>\n
Terrifyingly, it led to her being trapped in a marriage for four-and-a-half years, during which she was routinely raped.\u00a0When she dared to complain, she was threatened by her uncles. And when she tried to flee, they tracked her down and tried to kill her.\u00a0Ayesha eventually escaped, and today bravely tells her story to expose the growing problem of forced arranged marriages that is sweeping our towns and cities.<\/p>\n
Each year 10,000 take place in the UK, and last month a shocking ITV documentary caught 12 Muslim clerics agreeing to marry off girls aged only 14.\u00a0Those youngsters who put up a fight often fall victim to honour-based violence, which can end in murder. even now Ayesha lives in hiding to protect herself.<\/p>\n
As part of her campaign to raise awareness, she works with the police to help support other victims. Ayesha, now 36, says she enjoyed a \u201cpretty normal school life\u201d. She adds: \u201cMy parents were strict about not being allowed to mix with boys, go clubbing, have sleepovers or bare my legs. But apart from that I had a relaxed upbringing.\u201d\u00a0She reveals how aged 17 she begged to be allowed to live in a flat-share while attending college.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents finally gave in,\u201d she says. \u201cI went to the pub, had a drink and smoked, but didn\u2019t go off the rails. Then things started to get weird.\u00a0\u201cMy uncle started turning up on my doorstep, saying I was bringing shame on our family. He said that if I ever left, he had a network of people and he would find me and kill me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to live the life of an Asian Muslim girl. I was British and I wanted to be just like everyone else\u2026 so I ran.\u201d\u00a0But her family used a series of tricks to find her. \u201cFirst they reported me to the police for theft,\u201d she says. She grew up like most teenage girls in Britain \u2013 coveting the latest fashions, experimenting with make-up and hanging out with her mates after school. Her Muslim parents, who ran a shop, were respected members of the community. Ayesha, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, was always encouraged to follow her dream […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19,7,4,8,31,9],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-forced","tag-forced-marriage","tag-halo-project","tag-honour","tag-victims","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","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=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRead More: \u00a0http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/real-life-stories\/forced-arranged-marriage-young-british-2715692#ixzz2kFQJB7oS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"