I was born in a middle class family in a small town in southeast Missouri.  During my childhood, my mother worked as a English teacher and my father as a salesman.  Our family moved to Carbondale Illinois in 1965 where I met and married a much older Pakistani man.  Within six months of the wedding I traveled to West Pakistan and lived for almost two years as a Pakistani bride.  I was only nineteen years old and was totally controlled by a Muslim man.  I learned much from living in Pakistan about the treatment of women in Muslim countries.   My husband lied, cheated and stole from friends and family members.  After I returned to America it took me five additional years to divorce my husband.   His sole reason for marriage was to become an American citizen.   Almost forty years later I realized that I must put my experiences on paper so that other women contemplating a relationship with a Muslim man could learn from my life story.  After four years of writing and re-writing my memoir was completed and published. 

The Punjabi's Wife