Book description
He was my religious teacher. I should have been able to trust him. But
he made me do unspeakable things…
At seven years old, Nabila Sharma began her lessons at the mosque as
every good Muslim girl does. But from the minute she looked up at her
Imam, the man who held her spiritual future in his hands, she knew
something was wrong.
Over the next five years Nabila's life became unbearable. While she was
behind the doors of the mosque, the most sacred of places, the Imam
brutally molested her on the slightest whim. Each day he would make her
perform unspeakable acts, physically and mentally torturing her into
compliance, to fulfil his perverse desires.
Nothing would stop him; no plea would make him relent. But he was a
respected member of the community, trusted by everyone; if Nabila cried
for help she would risk the honour of her family, an unthinkable act.
There was nowhere she could turn, no one she could talk to. As a young
Muslim girl, Nabila was powerless.
Brutal is the shocking, revelatory and heart-rending account of one
girl's plight in a society where honour and shame are a matter of life
and death. It is a tale of innocence lost and a life shattered, but
above all it is a tale of survival, of a young girl who found love and
hope in the darkest of places. Nabila Sharma was born and raised in
the Midlands, the youngest of five siblings and the only daughter in a
strict Muslim home. At the age of six she was sent to the Mosque to
begin lessons and was subjected to brutal abuse at the hands of the
Imam. The incidents that occurred over these years changed her life forever.
Now an independent woman, Nabila works to bring light to the crimes
kept in the dark and justice to those who deserve it.
