Real Crime: Broken Promises Broken Brides
Wednesday September 7 at 9.30pm
In the otherwise ordinary neighbourhoods of New Zealand
cities, a scandal is happening.
Women from Asian countries are being enticed into marriages here: marriages which turn violent and ugly, leading to death, misery and heartache.
Investigative reporter Rob Harley had an image in his mind that wouldn't leave him alone.
It was the memory of a once vibrant and happy woman, who came to New Zealand looking for a brighter future, but the end result was a miserable death at the hands of a jealous and possessive man.
"I had filmed this poor woman, after she was shunted back to Malaysia," recalls Harley. "She lay dying in a Kuala Lumpur Hospital, and no-one seemed to offering any answers to the domestic violence that claimed her life."
The memories of that tragic end led Harley to start asking the question: How badly are Asian brides being treated in New Zealand?
The answer astonished him.
It turns out that one Asian Women's Rights groups is fielding up to 600 calls a month, about the desperate plight of young wives, who are being bashed, humiliated and in the words of one anguished Indian father, "tortured" behind closed doors in Kiwi homes.
The documentary "Broken Promises, Broken Brides," has required what Harley calls 'enormous courage' on the part of several women who've been told that either they or their family members will be killed if they speak out.
Says Harley: " In twenty years of making documentaries, I have rarely met such gutsy people. These women are coming out of the darkness to tell us about the atrocious things that have been done to them."
This documentary hears the heartfelt pleas of activists and ordinary mums and dads in India who are asking why New Zealand allows Indian women to be treated so badly.
It also hears directly from the "broken brides" - the women who
are begging for their voices to be heard.
