Forced marriage doctor 'was drugged in Bangladeshi psychiatric clinic'
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/3851698/Forced-marriage-doctor-was-drugged-in-Bangladeshi-psychiatric-clinic.html>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/3851698/Forced-marriage-doctor-was-drugged-in-Bangladeshi-psychiatric-clinic.html An NHS doctor who was held captive by her family in Bangladesh for a forced marriage was kept in a private mental hospital for months on end and injected daily with anti-psychotic drugs, it was disclosed. By John Bingham Last Updated: 5:11PM GMT 19 Dec 2008 Dr Humayra Abedin outside the High Court following Mr Justice C Dr Humayra Abedin outside the High Court following Mr Justice Coleridge's ruling Photo: EPA Dr Humayra Abedin, a GP from east London, said she was also tied up, hooded, dosed with sleeping pills and placed under guard during her four-month captivity orchestrated by her parents who made kept her drugged even while her wedding to a fellow doctor was performed. The 32-year-old gave details of her ordeal publicly for the first time at a High Court hearing in London at which a series of unprecedented orders were made under the new Forced Marriages Act to protect her from her parents and her "husband", Dr Khondokar Mohammad Abdul Jalal. She is also preparing to have the marriage, conducted in Khulna, south west Bangladesh, annulled by the British courts. At yesterday's hearing Mr Justice Coleridge, condemned the practice of forced marriage as an "aberration" in a civilised society and said he hoped the orders would send a message to "communities where this kind of behaviour is sanctioned". In a detailed statement which the judge sanctioned for release Dr Abedin's lawyers set out how she was tricked into travelling to the capital Dhaka on Aug 2 after being told her mother, Begum Sofia Kamal, was seriously ill. When she paid a visit to the house on Aug 5 she was manhandled by a group of people and locked in a room, her account said. She was kept in the house, supervised by up to five guards at any time. But when it was discovered that she had sent some text messages to friends in Britain appealing for help, she was ordered to take tablets which made her drowsy for several days. When a Bangladeshi human rights inquired about her, she was locked up and told that she had to go to a police station "to have her passport inspected". Instead, she was tied up and taken with cloth over her head into a waiting ambulance, where she was gagged and driven to a clinic called the Hi Tech Modern Psychiatric Hospital. She was held there until Nov 5. "She was injected against her will with what she believed to be mood stabilisers and anti-psychotic drugs, despite her struggles," the statement said. The practice continued daily because she was considered "unstable". "As a doctor of medicine she demanded a diagnosis but was never given one," it added. Eventually she was transferred to a house in Jessore, south west Bangladesh, from where she went to Khulna for the wedding in front of family. "She continued at that time to be under the influence of the medication which she was forced to continue to take and was under emotional duress," the statement adds. She was finally released last week by a Bangladeshi Court following a British High Court order and flew to London. Although she has told lawyers that she does not want her family to be punished, she has instructed them to take "whatever steps they think appropriate" against the clinic. "If they can do that to a trained doctor, God knows what they could do to a 19-year-old," her lawyer Anne-Marie Hutchinson said. Mr Justice Coleridge issued injunctions against Dr Abedin's parents, three uncles and her husband preventing them harassing her in Britain or taking her back to Bangladesh. They are believed to be the first such orders made under the act which became law last month. "I'm very happy to be back, but I'd like to get back to my life," she said. <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/please%20donate.html>Donations are needed and very much appreciated <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Kingdom!<*}}}>< Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue with Your help, so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/please%20donate.html>Donations are needed and very much appreciated <*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.holypostage.com/>Holy Postage <*}}}>< <*}}}><<http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Kingdom!<*}}}>< Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue with Your help, so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended. 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