KMEWO: STORIES FROM OUR CLIENTS

My name is S***, my marriage to A*** was arranged in 2002 in Morocco and I came to the UK in 2003. I have 3 children. In 2011, we left to Morocco however A*** couldn’t get a job there so we returned to the UK in 2015.   My relationship with A*** has been volatile since the beginning.  He was verbally abusive towards me many times and physically abusive on 4 occasions. The worst time was when I...

I am L****; a 35 year from Algeria. I married H***** in 2016, who was introduced to me by my sister. At that time, I was a successful employee living with my mother. I also have a brother who lives in the UK. I was happy when I met H*****, as in my country, shame is attached to any girl who reaches 30 and is still single. I was excited and wanted to have a nice family and children.  H***** shared the...

My name is F*****. I was forced into an arranged marriage to A***** in 2006 in Iraq and I came to the UK on a spouse visa that same year. I have 3 children, 2 boys and 1girl. Since the beginning of my marriage my husband forced me to wear a hijab.  My relationship with A***** has been volatile from the beginning. In 2010, the situation worsened when I decided to discard my hijab. He became excessively...

My name is T***; I am a 26-year-old from Iraq. I graduated from university, got married in 2016 to A***** and arrived in the UK on a spouse visa in 2017. From the date of the marriage when I was still in Iraq, I experienced emotional and verbal abuse from A***** and his family. When I told my family that he is abusing me verbally, emotionally and that I want a divorce, they refused that stating this...

My name is N*****; I am a 35-year-old from the Middle East. I had an arranged marriage in 2015 to A***** and joined him in the UK on a visitor’s visa. I gave birth to my two children in the UK, one of my children has multiple health problems. I was a nurse in my country but I couldn’t work in the UK due to my visa type. My husband didn’t try to change my visa to spouse visa as a wife and mother of...

My name is S***, I am a 36-year-old from Morocco. I had an arranged marriage in 2010 to M*** and joined him in the UK in 2011 on a spouse visa. I have 2 children in primary school. I am an educated woman but my husband was always controlling me. He was abusing me for many years, I thought that I have to be patient and bear with his abusive behaviour for my children and my family back home as they were...

My name is H***; I am a 27 year old from Algeria. I got married in 2015 to A** and he was 24 years older than me; he was my brother in law’s relative. He is a British citizen. At that time, he was working in Dubai. I joined him in Dubai in 2016, I got pregnant and he brought me to the UK by tourist Visa and I gave birth to my son in 2017. Since I came to the UK, I have been the victim of domestic violence...

I am a 25 years old Iraqi. I had an arranged second marriage in 2012 to Saman and joined him in the UK in 2013 on a spouse visa. The first 6 months of our marriage were good even though I barely went anywhere.  I was very isolated whilst Saman worked long hours in a shop. I couldn’t get pregnant and from this point Saman started to insult me, taunting me with fact I couldn’t get pregnant during my...

“I got married in back home and joined my husband in the UK shortly after. Since I have arrived in the UK my husband started to become very abusive towards me. He confiscated my passport. He started to verbally insult me. He slapped, kicked, punched and pushed me against the wall and to the floor and called me names. He shouted, screamed and swore at me. He criticised anything I do even the food that...

My name is V***, I am married with young children and was a qualified professional in my country. I did not work in England and was very isolated, my only contact being my husband and children. My husband was very controlling and abused me financially and emotionally. One day, he beat me and I called the police, they came and took him away. After extreme pressure from my extended family, I agreed to...

Ms R came to the UK on a spousal visa to join her husband, but sought help from the BRS as her husband had began to abuse her. The BRS referred Ms R to KMEWO as her visa was due to expire in about 14 day’s time and her husband was refusing to apply for a renewal. During an initial assessment at KMEWO, Ms R was asked to disclose as much as possible about the abuse she had experienced, including details...