French woman and five children rescued after 12 years held captive by husband in Pakistan

A French woman and five children endured 12 years of daily physical and mental abuse, isolation, denial of education, and imprisonment in a cramped, dilapidated room.

In a remote mountain town in northwestern Pakistan, a French woman and her five children were freed from more than a decade of captivity — a liberation made possible only because one son found the courage to slip away and speak. Since 2014, the family had existed in near-total isolation, denied education, movement, and contact with the outside world by the man who was both husband and captor. Their rescue is a reminder of how thoroughly power can be wielded within the walls of a home, and how far from help a person can find themselves when geography, dependency, and silence conspire against th

French woman and five children rescued after 12 years held captive by husband in Pakistan

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