I was sexually assaulted by an imam. He told me he had supernatural powers

Farah, also not her real name, met Khan as a child after he convinced her mother she needed healing. Farah says he took advantage of her family.

“He would make up stories, [saying] ‘I can see things coming towards you, you need to be protected, I need to protect your daughter’.”

Khan went on to sexually assault Farah, telling her it was part of the “cure”.

She says Khan’s abuse “didn’t make sense to me”. “I said to myself, ‘this is wrong’,” she says. “You know you’re not meant to be touched like this. I was really confused, but I couldn’t go back to my family because they wouldn’t believe me.”

Farah did eventually tell her parents as an older teenager – but she says they did not believe her and she then left the family home.

“I was not believed by my family. The people I expected to protect and support me instead turned away, blamed me, and continue to do so to this day,” she says.

“I feel as though I’m lost. I question my identity of who am I? Where do I belong?”