Veteran Pakistani actress Faryal Gohar has opened up about the domestic abuse and restrictions she says she endured during her marriage.
Speaking on Nida Yasir’s Good Morning Pakistan, Gohar discussed her personal experience with domestic violence and the pressure women often face to stay in abusive marriages.
Gohar said domestic violence can affect women regardless of their education, independence or social status, and that even prominent women have suffered abuse behind closed doors. “I bore violence in my own marriage,” she said, adding that she was not financially dependent on her husband but still faced pressure surrounding the relationship.
She recalled suffering repeated physical abuse, which she said was severe enough to cause miscarriages. “How can one give birth to a child when you have been beaten by leather belts every now and then, which caused miscarriages?” She said she often had to hide her injuries and sometimes missed classes because of the wounds.
Gohar also spoke about ongoing kidney pain that she said stemmed from the abuse. “I was being kicked and beaten from behind, and eventually, I had to undergo surgery,” she said, recalling a period when she was unable to attend university in London because of the pain.
Beyond the physical abuse, Gohar described restrictions she says were placed on her during the marriage. She said she was not allowed to leave the house freely or go for walks, and was sometimes required to wear her mother-in-law’s burqa when stepping out. She also recalled travelling in a covered rickshaw so she would not be recognised.
Asked by Nida Yasir how long she endured the situation, Gohar answered simply, “Nine years. Nine years.”
She said she was only 23 when she got married and that the decision had initially been her own. “I was 23 when I got married, and obviously, I had chosen my partner myself,” she said, adding that for her family, the main consideration at the time was that her husband belonged to a Syed family.
She said her relatives later confronted his family in Peshawar over the abuse, asking how he could call himself a Syed while raising his hand against his wife.
Although she did not name her husband.
Faryal Gohar married actor Jamal Shah after meeting through their work in Pakistan’s cinema and art industry. They were once seen as one of the industry’s leading couples. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1992 after nine years together.
Earlier this year, the former couple appeared together on an episode of Shan-e-Suhoor and spoke publicly about the reasons behind their split.
Gohar said at the time that Jamal Shah valued his freedom and felt he could not be confined by marriage, while Shah himself admitted he was “not marriage material.”
