“My in-laws were very kind. Even though my father stopped their son from even seeing me, they did not get upset.”

She said her mother sat with her and explained to her what was expected in a relationship between husband and wife. “On my wedding night I was unwilling to get intimate with my husband. I locked myself in the bathroom,” she said. “My husband told me from the other side of the door that he just wanted to talk to me, and that if I’m sleepy I should sleep on the bed where it is more comfortable.” She added that after about two hours she came out of the bathroom and he kept his word and did not touch her. “For weeks my husband got to know me and did not try to force me to get intimate with him,” she added. “I have led a happy married life with my husband. Right from the start of our marriage he never hurt me,” she said.

“And I had my first child at 14. It was a normal natural birth, I did not have any complications.”

Sabeeha is in favor of girls and even boys getting married while they are young because in her opinion it prevents them from being tempted into having illicit relationships or becoming homosexual.

“These days things are very different. Mothers and fathers feel that a girl is not of a marriageable age until she is in her 20s,” she said. “But human nature does not wait for marriage. An unmarried girl will start developing an interest in men many years before she reaches her 20s. She might get tempted and have a relationship with a boyfriend who will sleep with her and never marry her.”

She added that there were decent women and men who are Godfearing, but there are more who indulge in sinful acts, which could have been prevented if they were married. “Even if a girl only has a romantic chat with a man on the phone, it is still a sin.”

Sabeeha said she feels very sad when she sees young girls and boys who are homosexual because it is considered a great sin.

“I see so many students who are lesbians, and they are very open about it. If the parents of these girls had married them off when they attained puberty and began to have sexual feelings, these girls would have been living clean lives without sin with their husbands,” she said. “A girl can continue her education after marriage. What is the wisdom in allowing your daughter to remain unmarried so she can study and become a mature woman, while on the side she has boyfriends or becomes a lesbian?

“Even boys, how many young teenage boys are having physical relations with other boys? Go to the malls and you will see so many boys who are not normal. Some even pluck their eyebrows and wear light makeup and expose their underpants. If these boys were married, wouldn’t that stop them from becoming gay?”