A Muslim woman was made to undergo “a degrading experience, including bending down in front of her mother-in-law and even kissing her feet”, a judge at the Family Court has heard.
The woman and her husband had been married for nine years and lived in Lancashire. The couple are described as being of Pakistani origin and in their late 30s. They had an arranged marriage.
Mr Justice Newton said the woman was an “entirely traditional Islamic wife (who) served her husband and his family in their home in the north west with as much obedience and loyalty as she could muster”.
The judge said the woman’s husband was an “essentially weak and shallow” man who “does as he is told by his mother”, a woman the judge called “selfish” and “manipulative” – according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.
The woman had called police after her mother-in-law told her to go to Pakistan. Subsequently, she was forced into “degrading” behaviour like kissing her mother-in-law’s feet. In late 2011, the woman and her husband’s relations travelled to Pakistan where she was left for three years.
Justice Newton ruled that the children should live with their mother in the UK. Except the woman’s husband, no other member of the paternal family could see the children.
