"My Ex Husband Strangled Me" Abuse Survivor Reveals How She Was Almost Killed 3 Weeks Into Marriage

We raise girls on fairy tales....Prince Charming, fast love, and the promise of forever. They’re taught to be chosen, to be patient, to make relationships work. But what we rarely talk about is how these stories can shape what women learn to tolerate. In this episode of The Shadow Sessions, Hiba Balfaqih speaks with Annesa, who met a man online and quickly found herself swept into an intense relationship that escalated faster than she could question it. Within days she was meeting family. Within weeks he was pushing marriage, using faith and urgency to frame devotion as destiny. What followed wasn’t romance. It was love bombing, control, and escalating violence before the wedding ever happened. This conversation explores the psychology behind coercive relationships—how intensity can be mistaken for love, how cultural conditioning can blur warning signs, and why many survivors only recognize the pattern once they are already inside it. This episode examines intimate partner violence not just as an individual story, but as a broader social script that teaches endurance, obedience, and silence in the name of love. 00:00 Introduction — The Fairy Tale That Became a Trap 02:16 Where It All Starts — Growing Up Chasing Her Father's Approval 07:23 Silent Rebellion — Downloading Tinder and the First Match 13:20 Meeting Him — The Red Flags She Couldn't See 17:47 Day Two — Taken to His Parents House 20:54 The First Physical Incident — Her Face Slammed Against a Car Window 25:07 The Wedding — And the Kiss That Said Everything 30:00 How He Used Religion to Rush the Marriage 36:56 Married and Moved In — Then a Burner Account Warning 41:33 Three Weeks In — Strangled in Her Sleep 45:17 "This Is Attempted Murder" — The ER Visit That Changed Everything 51:11 How She Left — Her Sister Was the Intervention 56:01 Trauma Bonding — Why She Still Wanted to Go Back 1:00:07 The Restraining Order — Served on Valentine's Day 1:03:02 He Remarried in 5 Months — And That Is What Freed Her 1:07:09 He Has Done This to Multiple Women — His Family Knew 1:11:10 Why She Still Tells Her Story Today 1:12:30 Quickfire Questions ⚠️ Content Note: This episode contains discussions of abuse. 🎧 Listen and Subscribe Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Mm7... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Follow Annesa Tabassum Mawani: Instagram:   / annesamawani   Follow The Shadow Sessions: Instagram:   / theshadowsessionspodcast   Get to know the Host: https://www.hibabalfaqih.com/