Jasvinder Sanghera was 16 when her parents locked her in a room to force her into marriage. Refusing to wed the man chosen for her, she planned her escape with the help of a secret boyfriend. She eventually fled her family home in Derby and lost all contact with her relatives.
Growing up in a Sikh family, Sanghera witnessed her sisters being married as young as 15, often facing physical and psychological abuse. Her brother, on the other hand, was allowed freedom and to choose his own spouse. She recalled that her mother once said she was 'born upside down' and was 'different from birth'.
At 14, she was shown a photograph of the man she had been promised to since age eight. He was older and shorter, and she did not want the marriage. Saying no led to her being taken out of education and imprisoned at home. She eventually said yes to the marriage to gain freedom of movement, which allowed her to plan her escape.
Her secret boyfriend helped her. He saved money, and one night she lowered two suitcases from her window using knotted sheets and flushed the toilet to mask the noise. She ran three and a half miles to his workplace, and they drove to Newcastle, where she sat in the footwell of the car to avoid being seen.
Her parents reported her missing. When she phoned home, her mother said: 'You either come back and marry who we say, or from this day forward you are now dead in our eyes.' Sanghera later missed her family terribly, but the contact was lost.
