NameJade R
Statement

I am a British woman and I have made some really stupid mistakes and a huge mess in my life.

It started when I fell in love with a Moroccan man last year, he seemed really nice and sweet, but quite quickly was talking about marriage. I really thought I loved him, this was in Morocco btw, and so we looked into marriage. I didn't understand about islamic marriage, what it means. When I saw all the requirements for the marriage I told him I wasn't comfortable with it. But I really loved him, at least I thought, and I wanted the relationship to work. Plus he was very manipulative and good at pressuringing me.

Then in March he started to give me ultimatums and tell me marry me or I'm moving to Korea in 5 days. I should have walked away then but somehow I thought the relationship would work. I was afraid of losing him and so I did what he said. He was getting more and more verbally abusive and controlling, but I was totally naive about what his culture was about.

I wanted him to come to live with me in Europe and I was trying to help him get a visa. I put a lot of money in his bank account to help him, so on the visa applicatin it would look like he had money. This was to avoid the marriage he wanted. We wanted to live together but not for me in Morocco. So I wanted to get him out.

But he was even refusing to apply in this way for a visa. He was insisting and insisting on marriage in Morocco, not respecting my wishes. I wasn't comfortable with a rushed marriage or muslim marriage. One of the problems is I am a taoist and this is not recognised in Morocco. He manipulated me and manipulated me and in the end I agreed to convert to Islam and marry him, but I realised that I was losing my fundamental human rights and I told him I was never going back to Morocco once we were married.

All the contracts we went through, it was in Arabic. I didn't even understand what was happening. Now I am tied into this thing with a man who thinks he owns me. He talks about stuff like rights of the husband I don't understand and I google it and then I see what islamic marriage means. I never meant to get into any of this. It's a huge mistake and I regret it so much.

He also took the money I put into his account out and invested it in some really dodgy thing, I don't even think legal. He lost all my money and also the money that he too had. Now he is acting completely crazy. He is still in Morocco and I am totally in shock. I don't know what I got myself into or how I could be so stupid. He has hacked into my gadgets and spied on me, and keeps accusing me of betraying him.

My name is on the islamic register in Morocco, I want to get it off. I want to end this islamic marriage. I wish none of this ever happened.