Pakistani police have rescued a French woman and her five children from a home in Bara, a remote town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, after she alleged her husband had held the family captive and subjected them to sustained physical and psychological abuse for more than a decade. The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was found along with her children in what officers described as a cramped and severely dilapidated room, with visible bruises on her face and body.
The rescue was triggered when one of Yasmina's sons managed to slip out of the house undetected and reach a local police station to report the family's situation. Officers subsequently raided the property and arrested the husband, a Pakistani national. District police chief Waqar Ahmad confirmed that investigations are now under way. Yasmina and her children have since been transferred to a women's shelter in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial capital.
In her statement to police, parts of which have been published by local media, Yasmina said her husband had "effectively imprisoned" the family since they relocated to Pakistan from Australia in 2014. She described him as beating the family and placing them under pressure "on a daily basis." Authorities say the couple met in Australia, where her husband was residing at the time, and married in 2003 before moving to Pakistan with their two older children a decade later. The three younger children were born in Pakistan and, along with their older siblings, were never enrolled in school. Yasmina said she had no communication with the outside world from the moment the family arrived.
Yasmina has expressed a strong wish to return to France, and Pakistani authorities say they are coordinating with the French embassy on her repatriation. In a video recorded by police and shared with media, she spoke in a mix of English and Pashto, thanking officers for rescuing her. There was no immediate public comment from the French embassy.
The case has drawn attention to the broader issue of domestic violence in Pakistan, where human rights organisations say hundreds of women report abuse each year, with many more cases believed to go unreported. Shabina Ayaz, director of the rights group the Aurat Foundation, condemned the alleged treatment of Yasmina and her children, calling the case a "wake-up call" for both authorities and society, and urging full support from Pakistani officials and the French embassy for the family's wellbeing and safe return.