The Truth About Nadiya Hussain's Arranged Marriage

Since winning the Great British Bake Off in 2015, chef, writer, and mother of three Nadiya Hussain has become very outspoken about the anxieties and difficulties of being a young, hijab-wearing Muslim woman in today's society. After publishing her memoir, Finding My Voice, which detailed a series of childhood traumas, Hussain spoke with the Mirror about her experience filming a television program while raising three children during lockdown, growing up in the UK, and her arranged marriage.

Nadiya Hussain met and wed her husband, Abdal, through an arranged marriage at the age of 20. She says that she recognizes how lucky she was in her pairing to Abdal, who she describes as a supportive, wonderful man, and the best dad her children could ask for. Despite her successful arranged marriage, Hussain states that she would never want that for her own daughter. She says that once her children have left home, she wants them to be able to live their own lives, joking that she'd like "to buy a sports car and drive off! I'm still questioning whether I'll take my husband with me. Ask me in a few years!"

Television star and author Nadiya Hussain states that, although she does not want to set up arranged marriages for her children, she does want to raise them to be respectful and have good manners. She specifically wants her sons to respect women, hoping one day her future daughters-in-law will come to her and tell her that she raised great men. Hussain tells the Mirror that she feels very grateful to her mother-in-law for raising her husband to be such a good person. 

Yahoo! says that the pair have three children, two sons and one daughter. While she would not describe their parenting as strict, the family does have their children clean the entire house each Sunday, with a short tidy-up on Wednesdays. The Hussain children are also responsible for feeding and caring for the family's pets: four chickens, a bird, one rabbit, and a cat.

While everything has not been easy for the British chef, Nadiya Hussain says that she is trying to teach her children, and anyone who reads her memoir, to be resilient. Saying she learned at a young age to "keep your elbows out" when dealing with racism. After trying for years to mask her pain and hide her whole self from the world, Hussain told the Mirror, "What I've learnt over the last few years is to be happy with every part of me, whether it be the beautiful bits or the broken bits. It's all me."