A woman who went ahead with an arranged marriage to keep her family happy was found hanged in her home.

At an inquest into 26-year-old Noreen Akhtar's death yesteday, Coroner Roger Whittaker warned members of the Asian community about the problems that can arise when young women are pressured into arranged marriages.

The inquest heard that Mrs Akhtar went ahead with an arranged marriage simply to please her family.

But, despite respecting her husband Qadeer Munir, by whom she had a son, she did not love him.

In a note found in the bedroom of their home in Jesmond Avenue, Heaton, she wrote: "I wanted to keep you all happy. I also wanted my own happiness - I couldn't have both."

Her four-year-old son Noman found her on the first-floor landing with a scarf tied around her neck and attached to the banister. Other members of the family saw the youngster crying on the doorstep and went inside to investigate.

A cousin, Shugafta Nageem, said in a statement read to the inquest: "They had a normal family life, everything appeared to be all right. I cannot say why Noreen should have taken her own life. I was not aware of any problems she may have had."

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Philip Thomas said he saw Mrs Akhtar in April 2000 and was told that she had been feeling depressed on and off for about seven years.

"Her depression was in terms of her family relationships and cultural background," he added. "She didn't identify with traditional Islamic values regarding women's roles.

"She came under pressure from the family for a traditional arranged marriage in Pakistan."

Recording a suicide verdict, Mr Whittaker said: "The reason for going through the arranged marriage was quite simply to keep the family happy. It was not her ultimate wish, but clearly from the evidence, she respected her husband greatly.

"The poignant part of the note which she left, I believe says it all. She wanted to keep her whole family happy and also to have happiness herself. She felt she didn't have a choice."

Mr Whittaker said the tradition of arranged marriages sometimes meant that women were caught between two worlds.

"I don't seek to minimise it. I hope that members of the Asian community will recognise this as a real problem," he said.

"It needs addressing, and if there is to be any integration and marrying of the cultures, a way forward ought to be looked for with great seriousness."