Every major city in Europe has a place like Kottbusser Tor, where the dominant language is not the national tongue and where generations of foreigners have shaped the neighborhood to fit their own, exotic tastes. Lives in the Berlin district revolve around traditions and values brought from the old country, and Germans often feel out of place.

But praise for Kotti's multiculturalism is increasingly coupled with concern that such neighborhoods have turned into parallel worlds that operate against the rules of Western society. In these shadow worlds, teenage daughters are kept under lock and key, waiting for the day their parents marry them off to strangers. Rather than attract natives with their unique cultural offerings, they scare them off, increasing mistrust and prejudice.

DW-WORLD looks at Kottbusser Tor and profiles a woman who suffered in a forced marriage until finally finding her freedom