Naz Shah, who has been selected to fight the seat of Bradford West, was brought up in extreme poverty and forced into marriage aged 15 . A Labour candidate for Parliament has spoken of her extraordinary life as the daughter of a convicted murderer. Women’s rights campaigner Naz Shah, who was selected last week to fight the seat of Bradford West against George Galloway, also suffered marriage at the age of 15, violence and poverty. She was praised on social media yesterday after publishing a remarkable account of how her life has been defined by extreme poverty and violence. In an emotive open letter, she described growing up in Bradford in extreme poverty and becoming homeless aged six after her father left his family destitute when he eloped with a 16-year-old neighbour. She was forced to be a parent to her two sisters after her mother, who had suffered years of abuse at the hands of a local drug dealer, was jailed for his murder after she poisoned him. Mrs Shah’s mother, Zoora, was released from prison in 2000 after serving 14 years for putting poison into the food of Mohammed Azam, a local drug dealer she feared was planning to sexually abuse her daughters. He had helped her to obtain a mortgage so the family would no longer be homeless, but demanded sex in return. Mrs Shah, a mother-of-three, became active in politics after campaigning to free her mother, Zoora. She will be opposing Respect MP Mr Galloway in May’s general election. Yesterday she described being forced into an arrange marriage in Pakistan, when she was under the age of consent, to a man who was violent towards her. She had been sent to live with family in Pakistan when she was 12 to escape Azam. In her account, published by the website Urban Echo, Ms Shah recalled how she returned to Britain after leaving her own husband, who she claimed ‘used his fists to communicate’, to become ‘a mother to my two siblings’. She wrote: ‘I was only six when my father abandoned my mother with two young children and pregnant with a third when he eloped with the neighbour’s 16 year old daughter. ‘I remember been thrown into the back of a taxi with black bin liners full of our belongings and packed off from the family home. ‘We never really saw the end of black bin liners over the next few years as we moved from squalor to squalor, 14 times in less than two years, from back to back houses where the toilet was outside to rat infested damp houses where we lived and slept in just one room. Zoora Shah (left) served 14 years for the murder of Mohammed Azam after poisoning the drug dealer's food when she feared he planned to sexually abuse her daughters . ‘My mother’s attempt to provide her children with the security of a home came at the expense of being abused by Azam over years. A man that she thought would save her children from an uncertain and insecure future, little did she know he would be the exact opposite. ‘My mother had sent me to Pakistan at the age of 12 when she felt I was at risk of his abuse. Last week I was selected to stand as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bradford West, where I was born and raised, and where I am raising my own family. ‘I was only six when my father abandoned my mother with two young children and pregnant with a third when he eloped with the neighbour’s 16-year-old daughter. ‘I remember being thrown into the back of a taxi with black bin liners full of our belongings and packed off from the family home ...we never really saw the end of black bin liners over the next few years as we moved from squalor to squalor. ‘[Our new home] was purchased with the sale of my mother’s wedding jewellery but in someone else’s name, Azam’s name. My mother’s attempt to provide her children with the security of a home came at the expense of being abused by Azam. ‘Following years of anti-depressants, failed suicide attempts and feeling desperate and destitute she snapped. She killed the man who abused her. ‘My world was turned upside down, how I became a mother to my two siblings who were 11 and 13 at the time ... I remember the first day I visited my mother in prison, when I left it was like leaving a crying child at nursery for the first time. I now became a mother to my mother. ‘For me to be selected as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate is not really about me, it’s the dream of my mother... When I expressed my interest last year for politics ... my mother understood that her story from 22 years ago would resurface, it would open up wounds, but she blessed me as she knew it’s what made me this way. ‘When my younger sister was growing up and my mother felt she was now at risk, and following years of antidepressants, failed suicide attempts and feeling desperate and destitute she snapped. 'She killed the man who abused her.’ Mrs Shah said she was forced to become a mother to her sisters, who were aged 11 and 13. She did not return to school and instead got a job laundering linen for local hospitals. ‘My life now revolved around solicitor and prison visits,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know how to run a house. ‘I remember the first day I visited my mother at New Hall Prison, when I left it was like leaving a crying child at nursery for the first time, I now became a mother to my mother. We lost the house, we lost everything and the moving around started all over again.’ Mrs Shah left her abusive husband in 1992 and went back to college. She began working with women’s groups to campaign for her mother’s release. While working as a carer with disabilities, she was advised to join the NHS where she began to rise through the ranks and became politically active. She added: ‘Last week I was selected to stand as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bradford West, where I was born and raised, and where I live and am raising my own family. ‘Later on that evening on the journey back from London my friend asked me how I felt. I responded I would know once I was in my mother’s arms.’ Describing her mother’s reaction to her selection as the local candidate, she added: ‘When I did finally get home that night I was selected, my mother sat up in her bed and held me close whilst I cried. ‘We cried together knowing that whilst my past and my present are the dreams of my mother and her inspiration for me, my future is about the dreams I have for my own daughter. She is my inspiration to bring change and equality for the world in which she is growing up in, the community we live in and the wider society.’ The politician campaigned for her mother's release at the High Court. Above, she is pictured in 1998 with her sister Fozia after a judge turned down her appeal .
Naz Shah is campaigning for Bradford West against George Galloway . The politician has told of her extraordinary upbringing in poverty . Father abandoned family when she was six to elope with neighbour, 16 . Mrs Shah's mother served 14 years for poisoning abusive drug dealer . Claimed she feared the man was planning to sexually abuse daughters . Mrs Shah herself was forced into arranged marriage in Pakistan aged 15 . She left the abusive man and returned to college after leaving school at 12 . The mother-of-three campaigned for her mother, Zoora's release in 2000 .