Recently we asked the girls at the Omid-e-Mehr center in Tehran to write a story. They could decide whether it was fiction or a real life account of something that had happened to them. The results were really moving and we wanted to share just one of the stories.

This story was written by MG who came to the center a year ago having suffered abuse at home. The story she wrote could be the details of a previous life that she only shares with our counsellors at the center, or it could be fictional. She certainly has a flair for writing and an insight into the horrors that can go on behind closed doors.

Read her story 'Fate or Luck'

Once upon a time there lived a family in a small house. People believed this was a happy family. But inside the house was a different story. The father of the house was mean and cruel towards his own family, especially towards his wife, who always tried to respect him despite his bad behavior.

She never said anything negative about her husband to others and pretended that he is the best husband and she is quite happy with her marriage. The only person who saw behind the happy façade of her mother was their young daughter. Every day she witnessed her mother disintegrate under the barrage of her father's demeaning words and attitude, but would not say a word because she had promised her mother not to say a word.

The young girl would also be insulted by her father, but not as bad as what he would do or say to her mother. She was losing her patience and every once in a while she would come up with ideas to free herself from that miserable life. The only thing that would hold her back was her mother. The thought of running away or suicide had crossed her mind so many times, but would immediately think of what her father would do to her mother in her absence; and that's when she would change her mind.

One night, the father came home late and started beating his wife to the point that she fainted and fell on the floor. He then left for his room as if nothing had happened.

Later on, when the young girl came home from work, she found her mother all bloody and bruised on the floor. She became so angry that she ran to the kitchen to grab a knife to free her mother and herself from this omen, while her mother's miserable life was being fast-forwarded in her mind in an instance. Suddenly the mother came to. She wanted to stop her daughter and told her if you kill him, I will kill myself! So the young girl decided not to hurt her father. Instead, she ran towards her mother with teary eyes begging her mother to let her free the both of them from this misery. The mother replied:" no matter what, he is my husband, and your father!"

The next morning the mother stepped in her bedroom and found her husband on the floor. She tried to make him wake up, but to no avail. When the Emergency Medical Crew came over to the house, they said he had died of a heart attack in his sleep. The mother then raised her hands towards the sky and said: "dear God, thanks for stopping my daughter from committing a crime last night. Now we can live happy together!"