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Not a day had come in my life where you really feel that

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Breaking the wall of silence - the wives separated

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from their husbands, shunned by their communities

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The moment their daughter has been left by her husband,

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The impact for women who are left, who have been abandoned,

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It's leaving them almost in chains within their society.

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With thousands of brides branded as outcasts,

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we reveal the injustices and indignities many

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They marry us, they bring us over, then they treat us like a dirty rag.

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She's embarking on an extraordinary personal mission to find

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I am feeling a bit nervous as well as emotional,

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as I have not seen this man since one and a half years.

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I don't know how he will react when he sees me.

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She's used up all her savings and put her teaching career on hold

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to come to London and get out of a marriage in which

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I felt that my whole world has been disturbed or shaken and shattered.

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It was an arranged marriage and before exchanging vows

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she had only ever met him for one single hour.

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In India the arranged marriage is a really common concept, so...

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Vikram had come to my place prior to the marriage was finalised,

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prior one week before the wedding and it was just a normal chat.

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I mean, what's your likes and your dislikes?

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And what he has been doing in London.

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You're meeting a stranger for the first time, and he's

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going to be a husband, so at the back of the mind...

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You are nervous, you are excited, you are attracted towards him.

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Ritu insists she did not feel pressured into the marriage,

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but the wedding took place just 48 hours after they had met.

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We literally had one day, me and my family and my relatives,

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to prepare the wedding as much as we could.

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We arranged everything, the temple where we'd

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The wedding night, was it what you hoped?

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Vikram had a flight early in the morning,

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We did not even spend a night together.

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After returning to the UK, he assured Ritu that he would

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But within four months, the relationship became strained

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and Ritu's visa application, which required her husband's

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She now wants a divorce, but in India it is extremely

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difficult to divorce an absent spouse.

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She feels trapped in a meaningless marriage to a man she barely knows

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Sometimes I have to really curse myself that why did

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I could have asked him not to get married so soon.

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Not a day had come in my life where you really feel that

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There are believed to be tens of thousands of women

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Many are Brides from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh,

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who claim they have been cast aside, abandoned, by their

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For many of these wives, abandonment is just the final

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incident in a relationship that was characterised

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with abuse and deceit from even before the wedding.

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Throughout their marriage, many of these women are exploited

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Some are forced into domestic slavery.

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Others are even duped into giving up their children.

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We are looking at thousands of women, so this is not

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We're only beginning to touch and scratch

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But we see is a continuum of sexual violence that

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they have been subjected to, physical, sexual, financial,

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emotional abuse and the end process is often abandonment.

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Kulwant was brought to the UK from India by her British national

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She says that as well as being treated as a domestic

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slave, her husband subjected her to violence every day.

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In desperation, Kulwant says she eventually picked

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That was 18 months ago and ever since, her husband has refused

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Along with her son, Kulwant now lives in temporary accommodation

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and with the help of a charity she's trying to rebuild her life.

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I have travelled from London to Punjab, the north of India ?

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it's the same journey that every year hundreds of Indian British

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At a secret location in Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab,

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a special meeting for women is being held.

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Most of the women here are married to men from abroad and,

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according to the head of the charity who organised this event,

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More and more girls are in such a big mess.

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I see a lot of beautiful educated women, they are in a mess.

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In this region alone, the local authority estimates

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that there are well over 15,000 abandoned wives.

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Their husbands come from all over the world, but British men

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are thought to account for over one-third of these cases

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and for many of these grooms the motivation is not

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Usually, it's like this - he comes here and he asks

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for massive money from the dowry and they marry, the girls' parents

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give the dowry, he took the money, he enjoys his honeymoon months

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Despite being outlawed since 1961, in India it is customary

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for the bride's family to give money or gifts to the groom prior

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These dowries often amount to tens of thousands of pounds

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A lot of women say that well after the marriage,

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dowry demands continue, and, ultimately, when they cannot

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meet dowry demands, they are abandoned.

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In a rural village on the outskirts of Punjab, Kalmajit married a man

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To pay for the dowry and the wedding, her father

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scraped together almost all of his life savings.

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Within days of accepting his hand in marriage, Kamaljit's

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says her husband started complaining about the dowry.

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Eventually, says Kalmajit, her husband abandoned her

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She claims he left her even though she was pregnant.

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Just a few weeks later, Kalmajit's daughter died,

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but even then she says her husband did not contact her.

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Many women like Kalmajit still desperately hope to revive

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marriages with husbands who have left them, because the alternative

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Life as an abandoned woman in India means

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living as an outcast, an outcast wife.

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The impact for women who are left, who are being abandoned,

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is quite devastating, because it can affect

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It can affect the way the community view her.

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And the way they view their families as well.

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It can affect, if she has children, how the children are seen,

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how the children are raised, and if you come from very poor

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environments, very poor families, then actually what that is doing

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is adding additional pressure to the family and a sort

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She feels she has no value and society makes it

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And there have been hundreds of examples where parents

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Ten days after arriving in London, Ritu's had no success

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in tracking down her husband, so she's come to a woman's group,

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So, basically to sum it up, he doesn't want to know you.

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Literally, you just want to end the relationship, but trying to find

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the reason behind it, but at the end of the day you can't

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go back, you can't move forward, you are stuck, stagnant.

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That's a very horrible position to be in.

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I think you cannot ever get answers to the questions

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you are looking for, because from what you said you can't

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If she finds him, Ritu wants to ask her husband for a divorce.

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But most wives left in India never get the opportunity to do this.

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UK immigration rules prohibit them from entering the country.

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She will have problems in serving him in England,

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because she cannot come in as a visitor because she has

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to disclose she has a husband and she is married to a British

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national and once she discloses that she will be asked why aren't

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you applying for a spousal visa, and a spousal visa needs

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a husband's support, so she is caught in catch 22.

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Unable to obtain a divorce via the British courts,

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abandoned wives must turn to the Indian judicial system.

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Getting a divorce from a spouse who lives abroad is a complex,

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Some of the parents here have been trying to get

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a resolution for their abandoned daughters for years.

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Our legal system is little bit slow, it will take years and years

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There are a number of difficulties, of hurdles for each and every step,

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and more over these girls don't have is the money to pay for the legal

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system, even to go from one station to the other for the documentation

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and there is no direct legal system available,

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where she could apply as in a domestic

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Abandoned wives are not only at the mercy of the courts when it

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comes to obtaining a divorce - many face legal difficulties,

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if their husbands take their children.

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Six years ago, Sonali got married in Pakistan.

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Her husband, a British national, arranged for her to come and live

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I came here and I was seven months pregnant.

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I was thinking everything would be fine and my life would be better

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but they treated me like a slave or servant in their house and they

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Shortly after she had given birth, Sonali says her husband suggested

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a family holiday back in Pakistan to help her recover.

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On their second night abroad, he was out with friends but phoned

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My husband called me first and said, "I am coming to pick up my son

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because a few relatives are coming from Karachi, the city in Pakistan,

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He just took my son from me and I don't know why

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I was feeling scared that time, I don't know, but I just

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called him again and again, but suddenly his phone

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Eventually, Sonali realised her husband had been

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He had taken her three-month old baby and left the country.

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I was thinking there is no reason to live.

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Most of the time I start talking with his clothes.

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When I went to sleep in the night, I put his clothes with my pillow

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and no-one take him, because he is my son

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My mother is like, "No this is not your son,

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Abandoned in Pakistan, Sonali had no clue how

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she would access legal help to get her son back

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until she came across the website of a UK based charity.

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If there are children involved, there are some legal remedies

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available, not easy, but there are.

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Fortunately, that is a situation which the judiciary have woken up

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to, there has been case developments that allow women even if they're

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abandoned and abroad to bring proceedings here.

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Southall Black Sisters secured a specialist family lawyer,

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who made the child a ward of court and arranged for Sonali

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to return to the UK, where her case was heard in the High

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The High Court has said, because it's a British national

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child, and the best interest of the child are a paramount

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that the force of the law should and could be used,

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so that the child could be reunited with his mother,

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and the husband was in effect, ordered to support her immigration

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application to allow her to come back to the UK.

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Sonali has been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK under

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It means she will not have to return to Pakistan,

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where abandoned wives and their children

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Six weeks on, and Ritu still has not found her husband.

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Her time in London is running out, but she's found a charity that

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There are only a handful of charities that specifically

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They have recently been overwhelmed with new cases,

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triggering calls for more systematic help from Governments and legal

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What we want to see is a better harmonisation of law,

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so that a woman can be granted a divorce in one country and have it

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A woman can be granted a maintenance order in one country and have it

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recognised in another, but also that governments

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and state agencies cooperate so if a woman is denied a right

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by sending her to another country, she is not stuck

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Ritu has finally found an address for her estranged husband.

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She decides that she wants to go there today.

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I don't know how Vikram will react to it and I don't know how

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I just want to know why my husband has abandon me from this marriage,

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why doesn't he let go of the relationship.

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So I really hope I get my answers today.

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This is the first time Ritu will see her husband in over

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eighteen months and due to the sensitivity of the situation,

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It was really sad that Vikram did not even recognise me.

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He doesn't want to answer any of my questions.

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In fact, the meeting was tense and her husband called the police.

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I spoke to the police, they said, "You need to go to India

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Now if the police can't help me, where will I go?

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I was expecting that it will be worth coming here,

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Ritu's husband denied all of her claims.

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There are no second chances for her to speak to him in the UK.

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Her flight back to India leaves tomorrow and she

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Unable to secure a divorce from their British husbands,

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many south Asian wives resign themselves to a life of injustice.

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A life where their chances of meeting another partner,

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of having a level of respect in their communities, are diminished.

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Yet their British husbands face no such cultural barriers.

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They are free to continue their lives as they wish.

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She is departing without securing a divorce, but with hope and faith

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that she will be able move forward with her life.

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When I was getting the blessings, you feel that inner strength in you,

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and you feel so positive, the vibrations around

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you and you just think, "Yes, things are going to work out,"

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and I hope with the grace of God, that I just get what I want.

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To say there is a mixed bag of weather on offer this afternoon

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would be underplaying the case. When this picture was taken by our

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Weather Watchers, you notice how threatening some of the cloud

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