A 54-year-old French woman named Sylvie Yasmin was in June 2026 rescued by Pakistani police together with her five children after having been subjected to gross violence and held in captivity for 12 years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the border with Afghanistan.
Sylvie met her Pakistani husband around 2003–2004 while he was staying illegally in Australia. They married and the couple lived for a period in France. In 2014 the husband persuaded her to move to Pakistan. When they arrived he took full control over the family. The doors were locked, the windows covered and no one was allowed to leave the house. Sylvie and the children lived without daylight and in total isolation.
“I have destroyed my life through my own choices”
The three eldest children were born in Australia and France, while the two youngest were born in Pakistan. The youngest have never attended school and have together with the rest of the family lived under extremely wretched conditions.
One of the sons, a teenager whose age is not publicly known, managed to escape from the house, presumably on 18 June 2026. He contacted the police and told them about the abuse, the captivity, the isolation and the lack of schooling. A few days later the police carried out a raid and found the mother and the other children locked inside. The husband has been arrested and charged with gross violence and deprivation of liberty.
This is what happens with women in Islam. The woman in the first picture is Sylvia Yasmina before her marriage, and the second one is after she was rescued in 2026. Sylvia is a French woman who married a Pakistani Muslim man.
Sylvia Yasmina moved from Australia to Pakistan in… pic.twitter.com/pAsIqrSz2i
— Ahmed pak 🇵🇰 (@Ahmedpak378456) June 27, 2026
French authorities have confirmed that they are assisting the woman and the children. The Foreign Ministry and French consular services in Pakistan are involved. Sylvie and the children are currently placed in a safe house in Peshawar. The plan is that they shall return to France as soon as the formalities are in order.
Sylvie regrets her fate, but blames no one but herself:
“I have destroyed my life through my own choices.”
Right-wing French politicians are raising questions about how a French citizen with five children could have been held captive for so many years without triggering any alarm.