Mini dynamo helping others

The 39-year-old has trained as a human rights lawyer and started an online e-newspaper dedicated to raising difficult issues like forced marriage, domestic violence, child prostitution and human trafficking.

She is also putting the finishing touches to her autobiography, Dance of Dependency, which describes her own traumatic experience as a young girl.

“I was taken to Bangladesh when I was 16 to marry my first cousin,” she said.

“Women are sold for visas. It’s a real issue and it’s about time we addressed it.

“People talk about it in their own homes but they don’t have the courage to stand up in public.

“My marriage was hell on earth but I came out of it, even though I had a son.

“He’s been in jail and he blames me because I went out to work. But I wasn’t going to live on the dole.”

Aklima married again and had two more children but her second marriage was equally unhappy.

Now she is determined to help other women from ethnic minorities suffer the same fate.

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