A Cautionary Tale

for young(ish) women.

DISCLAIMER: I realise it's Daily Mail so please bear in mind that I'm commenting on what the article says and that the real facts could be different.

So the article is titled (a short version)
'I was raped, starved and kept as a prisoner': How an Australian woman, 30, travelled to Pakistan to meet the man of her dreams...

The story goes as followed:

An Australian woman who was lured to Pakistan by the false promise of a lavish life with the man of her dreams was instead locked up, beaten and used as a sex slave for months.

Lara Hall, 30, became the victim of a predatory online groomer...

Keep in mind  we are talking about a woman  who is 30 (!) years old, not a girl of 18 not a young woman of 22. Someone of  legal profession as well:

Ms Hall, having completed a law degree at the University of Notre Dame and working in a prestigious position, struck up a friendship on a train with a Pakistani woman called Rhianna in 2013.
  
 Ms Hall offered to teach her English and over time she became an honorary member of the woman's family who told her how much they adored her and often brought her little gifts.

The Stranger within my gate,
 He may be true or kind, 
But he does not talk my talk-- 
 I cannot feel his mind.
 I see the face and the eyes and the mouth, 
But not the soul behind.

If only her education included studying the classics, she may have been warned...

'I didn't come from a functional family, so it was everything I was craving,' Ms Hall said.

Of course...

One night Ms Hall was on a Skype call to Rhianna's family in Pakistan, and made her first contact with Sajjad, who was a relative...

Sajjad's friendship came at a challenging time for Ms Hall...Despite her burgeoning legal career and strong professional prospects, her troubles mounted to the point where she suffered a breakdown.

In other words, she finally realised that burgeoning career is not all it's cracked up to be, at least for a woman, which kinda makes me sympathetic in a way; however, I strongly suspect there are men in Australia which could offer her the security she craved and wouldn't mind supporting her though probably not at the level the thought she was entitled to:

'He promised a grand, amazing and happy life if I would ever consider him.

'He said he had five houses and showed a purchase contract for a Spanish house he said we could live in and that I could decorate however I wanted - he even sent me pictures of the house.

'I was seduced by the promise of this amazing life with him.

That's what comes from reading too much Pride and Prejudice and similar stories where girls are pursued by hunky millionaires.

'He was very compassionate, empathetic, always there to listen, issuing grandiose promises -like a friend, a very trustworthy person,' Amy said.

Issuing grandiose promises is the first sign the man is lying to you. Honestly, how can a person of this age (her twin sister in this case) be so naive??? I wonder if they are the sort of people who
 believe the emails they get from Nigerian billionaires promising to transfer 200 millions to their bank accounts?

Intoxicated by the promise of a beautiful life and seduced by the man of her dreams, Ms Hall took the plunge and on April 23 last year she flew 18 hours to Lahore.


At this point I guess we all should be happy the lady didn't go on a solo hiking trip in the mountains of Morocco...

'The house was certainly not like anything in the pictures, I was taken back when I arrived,' Ms Hall said.

'There were twenty people living in five bedrooms. He said they were just there for the wedding. It was filthy.

Could have cleaned it for the man of her dreams...Just kidding!

Over the next few weeks Sajjad admitted that he had fabricated the Spanish villa and that he was not the man he had claimed to be.  'All feelings of love died. 

(Emphasis mine). And they say money can't buy you love...

'Sajjad raped me and his brother attempted to rape me on multiple occasions. I was a kept woman, I was denied feminine hygiene products...

Do they even have them in Pakistan?

 I was starved over long periods of time - on one occasion up to 14 hours.

Wow, just wow! 14 hours without food, that must have been tough....I will spare you the gross sexual details which you can read for yourself at the link above and go straight to the next point: the lady's escape.

She managed to contact the Australian consulate and High Commission, thinking her reports of sexual assault would trigger an urgent response.

She was disappointed by their 'lacklustre' attitude, saying she was told to seek safety, but she was scared to go to the police due to her visa overstay and for speaking out against a local man.

Well,  what exactly did she expect? I don't know about you, but personally I am getting tired reading the stories of naive Westerners going adventure seeking in strange lands and then expecting their governments to send  rescue team when the going gets tough. The childlike naivety of grown up individuals keeps amazing me.

The lady did find a local man through Facebook (not some truck driver, mind you - but a chief executive of the elite AFOHS club), and worked up the courage to call the police, something she (and anyone in a similar situation) should have done from the very beginning. 

 'Our youth must learn that the internet is not a safe place- Thirty years old: "youth"...

She had to pay a fine and having no money (!) had to beg local Christians to pay it for her which somehow is the fault of the Australian  authorities:

'The Australian Consulate and High Commission failed to provide any assistance and seemed not to take her plight seriously

Gee, I wonder why???

Consular officials seem incapable of understanding her mental condition...

Well, let's just be charitable here and suppose that they expected grown-ups to behave like grown-ups?



'Why did the Government let me down? 

Should have stayed with the men of your own tribe:

This was my father's belief
  And this is also mine:
Let the corn be all one sheaf--
  And the grapes be all one vine,
Ere our children's teeth are set on edge
  By bitter bread and wine.