MIRPUR, Dec 14: Children playing cricket in the streets stop as soon as Zara Mehfooz, 30, calls out to them, knowing they are in for a free meal. This has been her routine since her return to Mirpur from the United Kingdom in 2011.

She says treating children to free meal helps ease her longing for her missing baby who was in the UK in the possession of her husband.

Zara, a resident of Kharak sector in Mirpur, had married her cousin, a British national, in 2000. They had gone to Bradford city where she gave birth to a baby boy, Shabar, in 2005 who is unable to speak since his birth.

She said from the very outset of her marriage, her husband physically and mentally abused her.

In 2011, Zara’s in-laws informed her that her mother was ill and hospitalised, and they were going to Pakistan.

However, she was shocked upon arriving at the airport as none of her in-laws had checked in.

She was the only one who went on board, and managed to make it to Pakistan with the assistance of a total stranger she met at the airport.

“That was the last time I saw my son. I yearn to talk to him, at least on phone, but my husband refuses to do so even on his birthdays,” she said.

Zara is illiterate and unaware of her rights.

Her husband used to keep her passport in his custody during her stay in the UK, and did not even apply for her British nationality.

In September this year, she filed a case in the family division of UK High Court in London, but without legal aid, it was difficult for her to pursue the case.

More victims

Sofia, 37, a resident of Bohar Colony, has a similar story to narrate.

She had married Azhar Hussain, a resident of New Town Birmingham, on March 14, 2002, and while in the UK, gave birth to a girl on July 17 the next year.

However, her husband was not only a drug addict but was already married to a British woman.

“I was not allowed to meet anyone and my in-laws forced me to stay at home,” Sofia said.

“In 2004, my husband told me that my mother (in Pakistan) had died and sent me back here in August without my daughter,” she added.

Her emotional scars have still not healed as she believes she might never see her daughter again.

Nadia Hussain, another resident of Mirpur, married Ashiq Hussain in 1999, and moved with him to West Yorkshire, UK.

During her stay, she gave birth to three boys in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

After the birth of her three children, she said her in-laws made it very clear that she was no longer of any use to them.

“They would say we have the children now and we don't need you. You should just work in the house,” Nadia added.

She said her husband used to beat her and even threatened to kill her. She was not allowed to leave her house or speak to anyone outside the family.

“One day, my husband told me my father was in the hospital, and we came to Pakistan along with my children in 2005,” she said.

Eventually, she said she agreed to a divorce as she was told that the children would remain in her custody if she signed the papers.

However, in 2008, her husband divorced her and returned to the UK along with the children.

Clutching a photo of her children hugging her at their front porch in UK, Nadia said: "I dream of my children every night. Physically, I am here but my spirit remains with them. I don't want to go back to the UK; I just want to see my sons,” she added.

“It is difficult for me to stay here without my children,” she sobbed.

Likewise, Shazia Hussain, a resident of Kotli, was six-month pregnant when she was abandoned by her husband in 2009 four years after her marriage.

Since then, she is living in Pakistan with her son, Tauheed Hussain, who was born in Pakistan while her elder son, Badar Hussain, remains with his father in Britain.

“My husband decided to visit Dubai, and while we were there, he told me that my visa had expired and I could not return to UK. He then suggested that I go to Pakistan, and here I am struggling after being separated from my son,” she added.

The same fate awaited Robina Kousar, 28, who married Shahid Farooq of Rochdale UK.

During her two-year stay there, she gave birth to a boy in 2008, but in January 2009, her in-laws brought her back to Pakistan and left her at a hotel along with her son.

She is now living with her parents while her husband continues to threaten her that he would take custody of the child. Their passports are already with her husband in UK.

Why Pakistani women?

The city of Mirpur, in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), is known as ‘Little England’ due to its large British-Pakistani community.

With the help of an English firm, Pakistan had built the huge Mangla dam on Jhelum River close by and more than 100,000 people had to abandon their homes.

The major population of these then migrated to the UK as the British government needed more workers for its factories in 1960s.

Therefore, British-born men are often under family pressure to accept a traditional Pakistani bride, and they often comply. However, an increasing number of Pakistani women now say that they have forcibly been separated from their children in the UK and abandoned by their British husbands.

Lawyers and non-government organisations (NGOs) maintain that only a few of these women speak out while hundreds more stay silent.

Mirpur-based lawyer Mohammad Yasin Khan, who is dealing with such cases since 2004, told Dawn that he had to deal with 20 of these cases in 2012 alone.

He said he worked in coordination with Anne-Marie Hutchinson, the chairperson of Parental Abduction Charity UK.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. I have worked on 65 such cases in the past few years,” he added.

Khan said: “Very few manage to actually get assistance, while most of these women are just dumped and that's it.”

“If they were in the UK, they could have filed for divorce or claim maintenance, but here in Pakistan, they have no claims,” he added.

The lawyer said women such as Zara needed a good lawyer in the UK to start the process of her son’s custody.

“She also needs a visa approved to allow her back into Britain and need to be able to fund her trip,” he added.

Similarly, Khalida Salimi, the executive director of Sach, an NGO, said she had come to know of several women who had been abandoned by their British-Pakistani husbands.

Salimi said the common perception was that British-Pakistani families wanted a Pakistani child so that they had an heir to their properties.

“They (families) know that they can leave these girls in Pakistan where the women would be unable to claim her rights,” she added.

On the other hand, she said parents in Pakistan also preferred that their daughters married British nationals to secure their future.

“There is a dire need to create awareness in this regard,” she added.

When contacted, Peshawar-based psychiatrist Dr Mian Iftikhar Hussain said such abandoned wives and their children became psychological patients which increased problems in their life.

He said these patients took little interest in life and were in desperate need of their family’s attention and support to deal with their sufferings.

Despite the obstacles, Zara and the other woman have vowed to continue fighting till they get to see their children again.

Note: Apart from Zara Mehfooz, the names of the victims have been changed to protect their identity.