So, in very short...my ex girlfriend's parents do not approve of me because I do not belong to their religion. But they aren't worried about theology as much as being "dishonored" among their friends because their daughter married someone outside of religion.
My ex...she is a liberal, open-minded person. But she broke up with me for the first time in 2006 because of this. Then she came back in 2010 but has broken up many times since then. She also displays all signs of Borderline personality.
Besides that, she just can't make herself go against her parents because she knows her father will never talk to her if she did this. She calls them wrong, she is bitter, it kills her...but she cannot take that step to go against her family.
Now she is looking around to find someone else who will be amenable to her daddy?
Her core knows its wrong. My core knows its wrong. Yet I just can't comprehend why would someone give in to fear, emotional blackmail and threats to maintain an abuse and dysfunctional relationship because "they are my parents."
Anyone ever experienced anything like this?

ps - she is a 28 year old dentist with an extremely good income and i am a 27 year old PhD student. so we aren't kids and we aren't financially dependent on anyone. and it pisses me off because so many times in the last couple of years she had made explicit promise not to break up for this reason...she has said it is her life...parents won't be around forever...and in the end she has to spend her life with the man, not her family. yet at the last instance when its time to do something, she backs away. she even said if i proposed to her she will say yes. i did...i went to her home, she told her dad i make her happy, he replied then go away with him.....but she went back indoors with her dad...leaving me again with a ring in my hand. i know...when i type out everything everyone must be wondering, "why the hell is he with her".
she is mentally ill. she has been going back and forth about seeing a psych for years but never stuck to it. she has been sexually, verbally, emotionally, and physically abused by the same family/relatives whom she cannot seem to leave.