I watched my mother abuse my father for years even after a divorce. She was a white Australian woman married to a Pakistani muslim man. He was a good man who integrated to the country, studied, worked hard and never took a handout. My mother use to spit, strangle and throw things at him.

He found out she was cheating, but she accused him of cheating and threw him out of the house and he cried outside in the rain for twelve hours. She used the family court to rob him of his money and only kept him around for limited access. He used to give her more money under the table just to see us as she threatened to accuse him of marital rape and domestic violence. This was shortly after 9/11 and anti-muslim sentiments were high. He wouldn't have stood a chance in court.

As we got older we started to defend him from her and she started to make false reports that he was a terrorist to ASIO, which put him under investigation. It caused him to have a heart attack a few weeks later. He survived. One day when we were all in our teens, we went to his house and put our foot down and said we were going to live with him. She took a bus from another city to his place (we had gone out for the day and my dad's brother, wife and kids were at the house) and smashed the windows and kicked in the door demanding to see us.

The police came and we came too, if it wasn't for us kids defending my dad and the fact we were older teens, she would have been able to take us. She didn't have a court order so the police had to let us stay, but did not charge her for vandalising property. She went to a mental hospital later that day (which I consider a dose of karma) and has been a thorn in our side ever since.

My dad had a happy ending though getting to spend time with us in our teenage years, he eventually remarried a nice respectful woman from his country and had two new baby girls to add to the family.