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ISLAMABAD: Zohreh* had believed Iranian police will help her find her missing husband. But her problems only multiplied from when she went to ask them for assistance.

“They said he was in another station. I went with them but instead of taking me to my husband, they took me to another location,” Zohreh says. “Police officials tortured me and raped me. I was left there, helpless to find my way back home.”

Pakistan was the only country that Zohreh, who lived in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, could afford to move to. And so she did in 2001, along with her sons Moustapha*, 12, and Raza*, 10. Her husband, she said, was arrested because of his support for the Shah of Iran and she decided to leave Iran fearing more trouble because of her husband’s opposition to the government. To ensure her children’s security, she divorced her husband before leaving for Pakistan.