French Family Escapes 12 Years of Abuse Under Husband’s Control in Pakistan

Sun Jul 12 2026 08:47:28 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

A French woman and her five children break free from years of domestic violence after police intervention in remote Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Sylvie Yasmina, a 54‑year‑old French national, and her five children were rescued by Pakistani police from a 12‑year confinement after her Pakistani husband allegedly abused them. In April, a son contacted authorities, triggering a raid in the remote town of Bara, where police found the family in a cramped, damaged room bearing bruises. The husband, living illegally in Australia when the couple met, had effectively imprisoned the family since moving to Pakistan in 2014. Yasmina and her children have been taken to a women's shelter in Peshawar and plan to relocate to France following their rescue. The case highlights the need for heightened vigilance against domestic violence, especially within transnational families.

French Family Escapes 12 Years of Abuse Under Husband’s Control in Pakistan

Police in Pakistan arrested a man who had allegedly confined his wife and five children in their own home, subjecting them to daily physical and mental abuse for over a decade.

Sylvie Yasmina, a French national, claims that her Pakistani husband was “very violent” and that she was continually beaten and restrained. Local police were alerted when one of their sons managed to discreetly contact authorities about the abuse.

The police raid in Bara, a remote town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, uncovered Yasmina and her children in a cramped and dilapidated room, all of them exhibiting bruises from the repeated assaults.

The family has since been moved to a women’s shelter in Peshawar, with plans to relocate to France. Yasmina says her husband had effectively imprisoned the family since they moved from Australia in 2014.

The couple married in 2003, lived in Australia until 2014, and then moved to Pakistan with two older children. The three younger children were born in Pakistan and never enrolled in school due to the family’s isolation.

Yasmina’s statement to police highlighted that her husband “did not take care” of them as a husband or father, and that the family “were deprived of freedom.” She expressed that her future and her children’s futures were ruined by the abuse.

Authorities have not identified the husband’s name but believe he was a Pakistani national residing illegally in Australia at the time the couple met.