Founder - Who am I?

Founder of Bayaan, mother of three and married for almost 40 years. A successful BusinessWoman and so much more.

This, is my story.

In 1988 my dad and I went to Bangladesh straight after my mock exams.

My understanding was that I will get engaged to a man who my dad had arranged my marriage with a few years ago. 

To my surprise I ended up being married one day after my 16th birthday. 

My dad left two weeks later, leaving me in a strange country with a strange family.

Husband was very loving and caring as well has his whole family, six months flew by beautifully and I returned 4 months pregnant to my parents home in London. I had my son in January 1989. 

In 1990, my husband joined me from Bangladesh and it all began with a dream:

“I want to help my husband. Together we can establish his family in Bangladesh, and then focus on our life in the UK.”

While my husband worked long, grueling hours at a factory—fifteen to eighteen hours a day—I stayed home with our two young children. My days were spent juggling school drop-offs and pick-ups, educating myself, interpreting, doing advocacy, and finding whatever locum work I could to make ends meet. I also carried the full weight of managing our home and finances.

At that point, I welcomed the challenge. I felt strong and capable, determined to make life work for us.

By 1997, after giving birth to our third child, I started looking for full-time work so that we could finally achieve our dream of owning a home. Two years later, in 1999, we moved into our current house.

It was around this time that my husband’s claustrophobia worsened.

For the next twelve years, I drove him everywhere.

One person’s responsibilities became two people’s work. I chauffeured him to every destination, waiting in the car for hours because he didn’t feel safe being alone. He would tell me exactly where to park, and I sat there patiently until he was ready to return home.

Meanwhile, my husband ran a clothing business.

The combination of driving him and managing my own work meant I was rarely home for my children.

My sister stepped in to pick them up or drop them off. We would leave the house at 7 a.m. and wouldn’t return until 8 p.m., sometimes even later.

I was missing so much of my children’s lives, and I felt it deeply.

On top of everything, I ran my own immigration business, which meant I gave up my stable local authority job. I wanted to build something of my own while still supporting my family, but the weight of my responsibilities was immense.

My husband always tried to help around the house, and that gave me moments of relief. Still, his inability to be punctual had a ripple effect on everything I did. He was also the main point of contact for my immigration clients, so I carried the burden of running my business while working around his availability.

My outbursts became more frequent and it was not limited to us both only, children often witnessed it too.

The constant driving, the demands of my job, my deteriorating health, and the strain on our marriage pushed me to my breaking point.

I prayed constantly, asking Allah to help me. I felt trapped, and my husband couldn’t understand the depth of what I was facing.

There were days I felt so hopeless that I thought about ending my life. The thought of Allah’s punishment and the faces of my children were the only things that stopped me. I chose to keep going.

Around that time, our clothing business phased out, and my husband began improving, slowly reclaiming his independence of driving while I sat in the car with him.

Life brought more challenges. I helped him set up a letting agency from home. Soon, I was running over thirty-two rooms and managing more than a hundred tenants, all with just one other staff member. Working under him became unbearably stressful, constant arguments and disagreements were very high and the thought of going to work filled me with anxiety

My time with him was at an all-time low. He was still struggling, unable to drive or go places alone. Slowly, though, he began finding his freedom, and I started to reclaim parts of myself too.

Then, in 2019, everything changed.

There were words spoken that pierced through me. Something inside me snapped, and I resigned on the spot.

It was a turning point. A new chapter began, though it was filled with guilt. Every decision I made carried the heavy weight of guilt.

But I was drained, mentally and emotionally exhausted. My confidence was gone, and I knew I had to take action for myself.

That’s when I started a year-long journey with the Science of the Nafs Institute, encouraged by my daughters. Slowly, change began to surface.

I learned that happiness cannot come from others’ actions or behaviors. I learned that I could not change anyone’s thoughts but my own. I learned to respect myself first, to let go of guilt, and to accept that while the past cannot be changed, the present always can.

This is my story.

A story of carrying too much, of breaking under the weight of responsibility, and of slowly rebuilding myself. It’s about choosing faith when I had none left, and rediscovering strength I didn’t think I had.

And now it can be your turn, to finally transform from your story and rebuild yourself.

Testimonials

  • Working with Salama has been such an honour. Her level of deep care and professionalism is unmatched.

    Anjuman Haque - Founder of The Coaching Tent

  • Salama's style is warm and inviting. You enter the converstaion in one state and leave feeling like your one cloud number 9.

    N - London

  • I would highly recommend working with Salama. Her attention to detail and meticulous style paves way for an increased amount of clarity and a breadth of openness in your mindset. You have to have a call with her to understand, and I would highly suggest you do.

    K - London

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