'My own parents tortured, shaved and exorcised me - I wanted to die every day'

It was around the age of 13 that Aisha* began to realise her parents weren't like her friends' parents.

One of her earliest memories is trying to stop a fight between her mother and father, a role she says she took on for the "entirety of her life". Subjected to physical blows and mental torture, which included her parents shaving her head, Aisha was forced to partake in practices where 'demons' were driven out of her.

"There was also little rhyme or reason to physical discipline in our house. I used to get beaten for a lot of little things," she told The Mirror. "At some point in my early teens, I just stopped fearing physical discipline. I grew numb to it and just stopped feeling any pain when it happened.

The beatings continued until Aisha left secondary school, but even as she tried to strike out in the world on her own, moving to the UK for university, her parents' cruelty followed her, driving her to the point of suicide. Even now, with an ocean between herself and her childhood home, Aisha doesn't feel 100 per cent safe from the threat of violent discipline.

Aisha describes her upbringing as "confusing". On the outside, they appeared to be a progressive family, with daughters studying abroad, and more relaxed rules when it came to modest dressing or going out and about; it was a different story entirely behind closed doors.

There was the constant weight of shame. Between the ages of 11 and 16, Aisha said she would be verbally or physically abused for "seemingly normal things like wanting to go out with my friends, speaking to male classmates and certain male relatives, having normal teen interests and interactions."

All the while, their Muslim religion was distorted and used as a means of control. "I was also raised on the idea that if anything displeases my mum, then God will be angry, and his anger comes with Hell and Hell on earth. For example, I'm very anxious about marriage because my mum has outwardly told me many times that for what I've put her through, God will cause a man to crush and humble me, and I'll crawl back into her arms, which I never disobey her."

She struggled with her mental health from the age of 12. According to Aisha: "When I started trying to have these conversations, I was met with hostility for being ungrateful and also for being just difficult and 'western'. I was subsequently forced into spiritual practices to cast out the demons affecting me, and had my head shaved forcefully once as a ritual to rid me of my suicidal thoughts."

Despite everything, Aisha didn't realise then that she was being abused. "I knew it wasn't fine. My home situation wasn't great. I didn't feel good at home. I didn't feel safe emotionally. But I also thought, well, I have a roof over my head, I have clothes, I travel," she said.

The truth, however, began to dawn after she left her family behind to start university in the UK. "I just never wanted to go home. I never wanted to call home either. It kind of had to be something that I had to mentally prep for.