Loh's journey - from abused wife to fighting mum

Penang-born single mother Loh Siew Hong's dream of a normal childhood shattered in 1992 when she was five years old.

Both her parents died of cancer, leaving her an orphan and she had to be looked after by her mother's relatives in Sungai Petani, Kedah.

Growing up in an Indian community, she followed the Hindu faith and learned to speak Tamil fluently.

Seeking to improve her life, Loh completed her studies as a chef at a local community college. It was at the college that she met her husband, Nagahswaran Muniandy.

They fell in love, and against her family's wishes, she married Nagahswaran.

In 2008, she received not one but two bundles of joy - the birth of her twin daughters. She was only 21. According to Loh, she had a tough pregnancy.

"I vomited every day, I hardly ate, and stayed most of the time in the hospital," Loh told Malaysiakini as she recalled the ordeal.

"I was very worried but told myself no matter what, I would care for the two babies.

"There was not much support from family members or neighbours, as my husband barred me from contacting anyone," she lamented.

Loh described her husband, then an engineering technician in the Kulim Hi-Tech area, as a very possessive and jealous man.

“It’s my fate,” she sighed, resigning to her situation.

Her son, whom she called "my prince", arrived three years later...