Naila Amin appeared to have an ordinary American childhood. She lived in a middle-class house on Long Island, New York. Her parents doted on her. None of her teachers or neighbors could have guessed that she had been betrothed to a man since age 8.

At 13, Amin was forced to marry the then 26-year-old man during a family trip to Pakistan. She returned to middle school in New York afterward. She did not take the marriage seriously. Her American life carried on as usual. She pierced her nose. She started dating in high school.

Her parents disapproved of her behavior. When she was 15, they moved with her to Pakistan, where her husband raped her night after night. She tried to swallow bleach, although she couldn’t bring herself to drink enough of the pungent liquid to die.

“It was unbearable,” Amin told me. “I cooked for my enemy, cleaned for my enemy, slept next to my enemy.”

Her husband confiscated her cellphone and passport. Amin convinced an uncle to call U.S. Child Protective Services (CPS) on her behalf, but it was too late. U.S. authorities could not intervene in a marriage deemed legal in another country.

At age 14, Amin stopped going to school and lived covertly at home. CPS workers made weekly surprise visits, but Amin hid in the closet during the inspections.

Five months after she and her family moved to Pakistan, Amin’s parents returned to the United States. Because her uncle had called CPS, Amin’s mother was arrested upon her return and charged with kidnapping.

Her father had no choice but to ask Amin’s husband to allow Amin to return to the United States.

Honor violence is all too familiar to Amin.

Before her parents’ return to the U.S. she had tried to run away from her husband’s house in Pakistan. Hearing that Amin was gone, her father reached for his gun, clutching it tight as he waited for male relatives to catch her.

The men caught Amin and forced her to return to her husband. To protect Amin’s life, other family members locked her father in the house for days. They hoped he would put away his gun. He eventually did.