Asmaa Azeem is 22, Fatima is 16. They are sisters from Pakistan, seeking asylum in Sri Lanka. Their parents are religious fundamentalists and the girls want out. They want an end to the abuse, they want an end to the old religious order and they want a life of freedom; freedom of thought, freedom of expression and more importantly, freedom of religion. The girls are atheists, and proud ones.
“From a very young age, the physical abuse began. My mother would hold a knife to my face and threaten to deface me, to cut my tongue, so no one would recognise me and I wouldn’t be able to talk.”
Asmaa is the oldest of three siblings. Her story began 14 years ago when she, her mother, and her two younger siblings – a boy and Fatima – moved back from Abu Dhabi to Pakistan, leaving their father, an engineer with the Pakistani military by profession, behind. It was then that the abuse that Asmaa suspects was fuelled by unhappiness and frustration began, leading to the siblings being verbally, physically and emotionally abused by a mother that wrapped tightly around her the comforting shroud of religious fundamentalism. More...
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