When Shahnaz refused to accept the abuse, she was plunged into violent conflict with her family, who condemned her for bringing disrespect on their name by trying to win her independence. They repeatedly assaulted and humiliated her to make her toe the line. After she left her second husband to get away from the beatings, they imprisoned her in her own bedroom. When they later tricked her into joining them in Pakistan she was beaten, stripped of her possessions, threatened with shooting and drowning and put under house arrest. It was only through her intelligence and extraordinary courage that Shahnaz was eventually able to win her freedom and her family's respect and start building an independent life in England with her daughter and third husband. Now Shahnaz (she has used a pen-name to avoid embarrassment for her family) has written her extraordinary, compelling story.