Anwar Ditta was born in 1953 in Birmingham to Pakistani immigrant parents. After her parents got separated in 1963, the father won her custody and sent her to Pakistan to live with his parents.
14-year-old Ditta was married to Shuja, 22 and had three sons after that.
Shuja moved to Britain in 1974 and a year later Ditta decided to join him. Unaware that she had the right as a British citizen to travel back home with her children, she and Shuja decided to leave them with their extended family in Pakistan while they set up home in Britain.
When Shuja applied to resettle his sons in the UK, the home office did not recognise them as their children. Undaunted, she fought a six-year campaign to win them the right to emigrate from Pakistan and join her in Britain. In an embarrassment for the government, she won.
