I don’t know what to do.
I’m a 21-year-old woman living in the UK.
I’ve known this man for the past six years. We first met through a mutual friend’s gathering and started talking afterwards. Our relationship has always been long-distance, and we’ve never met in person. However, we’ve spoken almost every day for six years, sometimes for 10–12 hours a day. When you spend that much time talking to someone over so many years, you get to know who they really are.
My older sister is married to his older brother, so our families already know each other well. He currently lives alone in Pakistan, while his parents, brother, sister-in-law, and the rest of his immediate family live in the UK. Our plan was that after marriage he would move to the UK, get a job, settle down, and eventually we would buy our own home and live separately from his family. I know some people will say we should only marry once he already owns a house, but realistically he needs time to establish himself first.
One thing I want to make clear is that I don’t believe he’s marrying me for a visa or passport. Before our marriage was ever discussed, he applied for a UK visit visa and was refused. He also applied for an Italian student visa and was refused. He tried legal routes on his own instead of relying on marriage.
He’s well educated, religious, has no bad habits, and has always treated me with respect. After knowing him for six years, I genuinely trust his character.
The problem started when our families discussed the marriage.
My dad said he would only agree if his family either gave me £15,000 or put a house solely in my name for my security. His family felt that putting a house only in my name before marriage was unfair and suggested buying one in both our names instead. They also offered to give me a car. Eventually, after a lot of discussions, they agreed to my dad’s demand of paying the £15,000 because they wanted the marriage to happen.
Unfortunately, the conversations became very heated.
My dad said extremely harsh things to his family. He said they had achieved nothing in life, couldn’t even provide properly for their own family, and even criticised personal things about them. His family felt deeply insulted and humiliated.
In return, they also said hurtful things. They told my sister (who is married into their family) that it felt like my family was “selling their daughter” and that they had many other marriage proposals. They also said people have told them they could easily find another girl in the UK.
So now both families feel insulted by each other.
The hardest part for me is what happened between me and my dad.
During all of this, he said very hurtful things to me. He called me “a piece of dirt,” said I “spread dirt wherever I go,” called me a humiliation, said I would run away, and even said he would humiliate me in front of the whole family. Hearing those things from my own father has been devastating, and since then I’ve started having panic attacks.
At one point I even told my dad that I didn’t want the £15,000 because I was worried his demands would make the other family think he only cared about money. He then said that if I didn’t want the money, the house should still be put entirely in my name.
My mum and sisters support my dad. They believe he is only trying to secure my future and that it’s reasonable to ask for financial security.
The man I want to marry has been trying to convince his parents to agree to everything because he doesn’t want to lose me. Despite that, my dad now says he doesn’t want the marriage anymore because he feels insulted. He keeps saying things like, “They don’t want you. You’re the one who wants them,” and, “You want a toy that doesn’t want you.”
I’m completely stuck.
Part of me understands that my dad wants me to be financially secure. Another part of me feels like this has become more about pride and ego than my future.
I love this man, and he loves me. Neither of us wanted the families to fall out like this. I don’t know whether I should keep trying to save this relationship or accept that too much damage has already been done.
If you were in my position, what would you do? Do you think this situation can still be repaired, or has too much been said between the families?
Posted Jul 11, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC