Pakistani woman abused by father recovering in US (Sacramento, California)

This brave young woman and her aunt are very lucky they managed to get out of Pakistan alive. By the time this young woman was 10, she had been hospitalized four times due to her UNNAMED DAD's severe physical abuse. But no one, especially a woman, had any power to intervene on her behalf till an aunt adopted the young woman at 17 and brought her to the US.

http://media.www.crcconnection.com/media/storage/paper572/news/2009/11/05/Features/Student.Survives.Abuse-3824907.shtml

Student survives abuse
Bhavisha Patel
Issue date: 11/5/09

Bruised, battered and emotionally wrecked, Khalifa Shah has lived a life not many other 21-year-old Americans can relate to. Shah survived numerous attacks on her life at the hands of someone who was supposed to love her unconditionally, her father. By the time she was 10, Shah had been hospitalized four times due to being punched, stabbed and set on fire by her dad.

Her mother said and did nothing to stop it.

"My mother shrugged it off and told me that it happens in our religion all the time," Shah said. "My parents told me there was nothing I could do about it, so I dealt with it."

Shah isn't alone. Parents are the perpetrators in approximately 56 percent of acts of abuse against victims 12 to 17 years of age, according to the Child Abuse Prevention Web site.

Having grown up in a small village in Pakistan, Shah never doubted her parents' words. She had a number of friends who had been beaten by their parents for talking to a member of the opposite sex or getting home later than usual.

"My friend's body was found right outside of our village after her family found out she had a boyfriend. She had been buried alive by her parents," Shah said. "It's very common in the Muslim world - more common than anyone would think."

An estimated 5,000 Muslim women are victims of honor killings annually, according to The United Nations Population Fund.

In cases like these, the parents are rarely prosecuted or even reprimanded for their actions.

The worst abuse came after Shah was an hour late getting home from school. She said her father sat by the door and waited for her with a baseball bat. As soon as she walked through the door, he started swinging. Shah counted a total of 31 hits to her stomach, legs and head before blacking out.

"When I woke up, I was laying in the dirt outside with a bunch of bruises and I was bleeding," Shah said. "My dad had set my arm on fire, but some neighborhood kids threw water on me."

Shah's aunt, who she now lives with, witnessed the attack.

I was there, but I couldn't do anything. Over there, if you are a woman, you keep your mouth shut and turn a blind eye to everything," said Saba Khan, who adopted Shah at the age of 17 so that she could come to the U.S. and live with her. "I wanted to help, but I knew I would lose my life if I tried to do anything."

Shah's situation only got worse as she got older. She wasn't allowed to stand outside of her house and often times, and her parents prohibited her from attending school, citing that she was a flight risk.

"I wasn't allowed to have a childhood, I wasn't allowed to do anything," Shah said. "I tried my best to obey all of the rules and still… it wasn't good enough."

Khan's sister, Shah's mom, pleaded with Khan and her husband to adopt Shah and bring her to the states with them so that she didn't have to endure the abuse any longer.

"I didn't want to leave my mom in the abusive situation alone, but she begged me to leave because she knew that he would kill me one day if I stayed there," Shah said. "I did what I could to give one of us a fair chance at life. It kills me that she's still there, but I know that she is happier now that I am here."

Khan said her greatest accomplishment in life was getting her niece out of those unfair living conditions.

"That was no way for a young child to live her life. Every time I looked into her eyes, I saw pain," Khan said. "That's nothing you want to see in the eyes of a child."

After moving here, Shah earned her high school diploma, obtained her driver's license, got a job and began taking classes at Cosumnes River College.

"She's come a long way from being the girl with no power and a face full of bruises," Khan said.

Although Shah's scars remain, she chooses not to hide behind them.

"I'm one of the lucky ones," Shah said. "I've been through a lot, but I'm alive, and that's a great blessing."