Naz Shah: Forced Marriage, Family Secrets and Her Mother’s Murder Conviction
3/6/20261 hr 8 min
This episode includes discussion of sensitive topics, including sexual assault and violence, that some listeners may find distressing. Please take care while listening, and feel free to pause or step away if you need to.
At fifteen, Naz Shah was forced into a marriage thousands of miles from home. Years earlier, she had been sent from Bradford to rural Pakistan, pulled out of school and dropped into a life that felt a world away from the one she had known.
But the road that would eventually lead her to Westminster begins much earlier. It starts in a Bradford childhood shaped by poverty, upheaval and a mother trying desperately to hold her family together after being abandoned and left dangerously vulnerable.
In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien sits down with Shah to explore the experiences that shaped her life. She recalls growing up amid instability, belongings packed into black bin liners, and the powerful expectations around honour and reputation that governed the choices available to women and girls.
As the conversation unfolds, Naz reflects on the moment her childhood ended and the shock that followed her return to Britain. A family crisis would eventually lead to her mother being imprisoned for killing the man who had controlled and abused her for years, a truth that emerged only gradually and changed the course of Naz’s life.
This is a conversation about survival, silence and the weight of honour. How does a girl who left school at twelve find her way to Parliament? And what happens when the story behind a family tragedy finally comes into the light?
Find out more about Honoured by Naz Shah here
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If you've been affected by anything you've heard in this episode, please take a moment to read the resources listed: Rape Crisis, Women's Aid, Victim Support
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJames O'Brien· Host0:00
Just a quick heads up. This episode includes discussion of very sensitive topics, including sexual assault and violence that some listeners may find distressing. Please take care while listening and do step away or pause if you need to.
Speaker 10:15
[upbeat jingle] This is a Global Player original podcast.
James O'Brien· Host0:21
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to Full Disclosure, a podcast project conceived entirely to let me spend more time with interesting people than I would ever get on the radio. Um, Naz Shah, welcome.
Naz Shah· Guest0:39
Thank you.
James O'Brien· Host0:39
Author, MP. Um, I'm gonna start at the end, if I may. Y-you are publishing a frankly extraordinary book, some elements of which some people may be familiar with, most elements of which most people won't be familiar with, but it goes into heartbreaking detail about a, a most harrowing life for you and, and, and your family. Many people would want to bury that away and never think about it again. W-why... A-and, and I know that the book itself contains explanations of why you have decided to write it, but I, but I want to hear it from you.
Naz Shah· Guest1:16
Um, so first of all, thank you very much for having me. I- for, for me, you can either... y-you can leave it in the past, but if there's lessons from that, we learn lessons from history, don't we? So the best lessons for leadership, for