Aleya Parveen (Birmingham, UK)
My family
Aleya is the youngest of nine children - six brothers and three sisters.
I got married five years ago. My father-in-law went to Bangladesh to find a wife for his son. The marriage was arranged but he didn't live to see it happen. Within six months of coming to Bangladesh, he died. My husband and I liked each other, but it was also his father's wish that we should marry.
Aleya's father died many years ago while visiting her brother in Dhaka - he was returning home in a bus that was struck by a truck in the fog. After her marriage, Aleya stayed in Bangladesh to care for her mother.
My mother suffered for a long time. I looked after her. I came to this country after she died. I've been married for five years but I've been here for only three years. I was in Bangladesh taking care of my mother for two years after my marriage. My husband didn't try to bring me here because he knew that if I came here, my mother would have no one to care for her… So I had to stay with her… I came here two or three months after all the rituals for a dead person had been completed.
Aleya's extended family is large. Her mother is her father's 'cousin sister'. Her father has two brothers. Most of her immediate relatives live all around the world – her two elder brothers live in Bangladesh but she has two brothers in Qatar. One brother and one sister went to America (where her father's brothers and their families live) after marriage. She has one sister in Birmingham and her youngest brother also came to the UK after Aleya moved here.
