Thread by @thebetterindia

#SoulStories
"I had just returned from school and saw a few visitors at home. My mother asked me to serve them tea. I realised they had come to ask my hand in marriage only after they left.
@moosa_jasmine

Within a week, I was engaged, and just three days later, I was married to a man I met on my wedding day for the first time. The night after the wedding, he tried to pin me down forcefully. One year later, I got to know he was autistic.

I filed for divorce. My family declared me a burden.
The next subsequent alliance was precisely the kind of guy I wanted. He assured me that he was ready to accept me for who I was. This could be a new chapter in my life.

But on the wedding night, he came into the room and slapped me across my face. I froze. He then tied both my hands and feet and raped me. My husband, a cocaine addict, would rape me every day and warn me about the consequences of speaking to anyone. I kept quiet.

One day, I discovered I was pregnant and felt the will to live again. When I informed my husband about the baby, he flew into a rage and kicked me in the stomach. I started bleeding profusely, but the uterus tube ruptured, and I had to undergo surgery to avoid blood loss.

I lost my baby. Soon after, my husband called me to file for a divorce. I was completely dead inside to process any of it.
I decided I wouldn’t let him get away with this and filed a domestic violence case. He eventually got arrested.

After all this trauma, I wanted to leave the country, but my family burned my passport and other documents.
I fled to Kochi and found a job as a receptionist at a fitness centre. I started building myself up both mentally and physically.

The people at the fitness centre gave me all the strength and motivation I had lacked my entire life. I made a transformation video that went viral, and the encouragement I received from people who watched it further encouraged me to continue going down this path.

Now I have a job, an identity and people who love and support me daily. I might not have been alive if I had waited for things to get fixed. But my decision to live my life for myself changed everything."
~Jasmine M

#Inspiration #Fitness #Bengaluru

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