In her own words: Reema's Story

by Laura McAdam

Taken from an interview in Kanpur

'My name is Reema, I wanted to study but when I went to school some of the boys teased me. I answered back to them but they threatened to kill me saying ‘how dare you try and stop us’. One boy proposed to me but I told him I didn’t like him. Somebody told my mother about what had happened and my mother became very angry and suspicious thinking that I was not good. Then my parents organised a marriage for me and forced me to marry a different boy.
After I got married I was not happy. I had been studying and I had wanted to do something in life. My husband and my in-laws said ‘we’ve bought you so we can do anything to you.'

One night my husband made me lie down and then he tied me up and sexually tortured me all night. When I claimed he tortured me all night he said ‘we have bought you so all the rights of your body are mine.’ I said ‘no, this is not right’, and so he tried to hang me.

Then I gave my husband a glass of milk and he put his hand over my mouth saying I had attempted to murder him. I attacked him back and my husband called my parents and told them ‘your daughter is not good and does not obey me.’ My parents took my husband and my in-laws side. I attempted suicide as I thought that nobody in the world who would understand that my pain existed. Then someone found me and my husband carried me to the police. I told the superintendent everything and he didn’t know what to do with me because I didn’t want to go back to my husband and I didn’t want to go to my parents house either. So he called Sakhi Kendra (A Christian Aid partner organisation) telling them ‘There is a girl here who is suffering so much – can you help her?’ I was sent to the [Sakhi Kendra safe house] on 27th June [2007] at 6am.

At present I am very happy here because all of the members are like my family, only better. The best part is that they understand me and appreciate me. When I came here I was frightened but very quickly I liked it better than my own house.

I am [in 2008] 18 and studying for my graduation, and I am trying to become economically self dependent as soon as possible."

Sakhi Kendra is one of Christian Aid's partner organisations in India. Sakhi Kendra campaigns for women’s rights, against violence and abuse against women, and helps individual women in trouble.

Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in 49 countries through partner organisations. We act where the need is greatest, regardless of religion, helping people build the life they deserve.