A searing tale of forced marriage in Pakistan, which is not at all unusual. From the BBC, with thanks to Sharon:
At an Islamabad women’s refuge, with an address cloaked in secrecy and a perimeter guarded by barbed wire, 21-year-old Sharzia – whose name has been changed to protect her identity – broke down in tears as she described the horror of her forced marriage.
It was to a man she had never met, who physically and mentally abused her almost from the very outset.
On her leg is a 10-cm (4-in) scar, an indelible reminder of the day he attacked her with a broken clay pot.
In her mind are the tortuous memories of a two-year ‘marriage’ in which she was threatened repeatedly with death. Once, as she suffered an asthma attack, her husband even took away her inhaler.
Then, as she gasped for breath, he threatened to chop up her body and feed it to the dogs roaming outside. Having broken her body, he was trying to crush her spirit.
Read it all.