Forced marriage is a form of abuse.
It's a form of torture and it's a form of violence.
The first six years of my life were really nice.
I was in care and didn't have any worries in my life really.
It was a really happy time.
The day my mum came to pick me up from the children’s home I felt really happy.
When I got to my mum's house it wasn't as I had expected.
I had to get used to the clothes, the food, the language.
I wasn't loved there at all.
I was beaten, I was abused all the time for not doing things right.
I was used as a domestic slave really.
It was a horrible and evil time in my life.
But it got worse.
At the age of 13 my mother told me:
"We're going on holiday to Pakistan."
For the first few months it was good.
My mother had a house and it was surrounded by acres of land,
so I could climb the trees and eat the fruits off the trees. It was really nice.
A family started coming to the house.
About a week later, my mum asked me
which of the two guys I liked the look of.
I was quickly told I was going to be married.
I thought, "But I'm only 13, how can that happen?"
About a week later, the family came back.
I was quickly ushered in and told to change my clothes
and I was given an old red suit to wear.
The priest came in and he said, "Say these words after me",
and I just mumbled them because I didn't know what he was saying.
A few minutes later my mother came in and said, "You're married now, that's it."
"Go home with your husband now."
She whispered in my ear, "Don't you dare make a scene, just go."
She just pushed me out of the house.
I just looked at this guy and was expected to go with him.
I had absolutely no idea about marriage. I had no idea what was going to happen next.
No... I was 13 years old.
I can't talk about what happened over the next three days,
I've blocked it out of my memory and I don't want to speak about it.
But when I came back to my mother's home after three days,
I tried to commit suicide.
I took some medicines and I just wanted to die.
That was the only way I thought I could escape the nightmare.
After I woke up, my so-called husband, he said,
"The doctor thinks you're expecting and that's why you've been unconscious for three days,"
"because your body is adjusting to it."
"That means you can go back to the UK soon."
I didn't know what "expecting" was, but I happily thought,
I'll go through anything, or cope with anything, as long as I'm going back to the UK.
Having a baby and something to live for, it changed me immensely as a person.
Being beaten didn't really hurt me anymore because I knew I could go and play with my baby.
He was my delight.
Two years later, my bother bought a shop,
so I had to leave Azmier, my baby, at home with my mother.
I really feared for him.
I came home one day, and I put him to bed and he flinched,
and he had a bruise on his back .
He was getting the same kind of treatment as I was.
I prayed that I could find a way out of my situation.
At 18, a family friend
came to stay with us and he really stuck up for me,
so when he asked us to leave with him,
it had "Way Out" in bright lights just surrounded him.
I didn't think twice. I just said yes.
My family weren’t happy with me leaving, putting it mildly.
The police turned up and told me that my brother
had sent people down to kidnap me.
The police found a sword and nunchuks and a baseball bat in the boot of the car.
My brother was capable of killing me and I know that is what would have happened.
I was determined to put my story out there
to help young people who had been forced into marriage.
Just because I'm from a different culture doesn't mean
that within my culture forced marriage is acceptable.
It's not.
The difference between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage,
an arranged marriage is Match.com within the Asian community.
You're given that opportunity to meet and say no to the person or yes.
A forced marriage is when you don’t have a choice.
It's all about consent.
Consent means that you are able to say yes to that marriage without any pressures.
I've spoken to many teachers off the record, they've said, "Yes, we know it's going on."
"A few girls disappear each month, but we can't do anything about it."
That is shocking.
Who can do something about it?
We have to start speaking out.