About 90 miles (140km) north-east of the Grand Canyon, in a barren desert surrounded by rust-red cliffs and majestic canyons, lies the Short Creek community. This is the headquarters of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), a branch of Mormonism which splintered off in the early 20th Century. It's famous for its conservative ways – no television or internet, outdated clothing (women wear full-length prairie dresses) – and polygyny, where one man can take many wives. After a series of scandals, the religion’s leader, Warren Jeffs, is now in jail. But the community and their way of life continues in the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City, just as it did when it was first founded nearly 100 years ago.

As BBC Future reported this week, the community’s long history of polygyny has led to serious genetic problems:

The polygamous town facing genetic disaster

But what is it like to live in the polygynous community in Short Creek? BBC Future spoke to Faith Bistline about her previous life in the religion – and the tense moments on the night she decided to run away.

Tell me about your family.

“I have three mothers and 27 siblings – I think my oldest brother is 42 and the youngest… he was four when I left, so I guess he would be around 10 now. My father was kicked out when I was 13 and he hasn’t been in my life since then. He came to my grandfather’s funeral six months after he left and he didn’t even recognise a lot of us, which was weird.

“Pretty much every adult in Colorado City is in a polygynous marriage. They believe that men must marry at least three women in order to go up to heaven. Not everyone has this many, though. You have to be deemed worthy, so some men only have one or two.”

What was the daily routine like there?

“So we had to get up at 5:00 and then we had a family class where my father would read us one of the prophet’s sermons. After that we would all kneel down in a circle to pray. Then one of the mothers would cook breakfast and my father would go to work. Some of my mums worked so they would go to work too, while one stayed behind with the children. Then I’d have school all day and in the evening we’d have another family class after dinner – then repeat. Every day was the same.

Would you have been married off eventually?

“Oh yeah, definitely. There was a system. In order for someone to get married, their father would have to go to Warren Jeffs and say, ‘Hey, my son or daughter is ready,’ and then he’d place them in a marriage. If your husband wasn’t married to someone already, he’d probably be given another wife eventually.”

If some men have several wives, does that mean others don’t have any?

“It works out because a lot of the younger boys get kicked out when they’re teenagers. Some of them start watching movies and these types of things aren’t allowed. That leaves more girls than there are guys.”

Why was your father kicked out?

“He was actually never told why. But after Warren Jeffs was arrested, the police released all his records – he took notes of everything – and we discovered that he had a dream that my dad had turned him into the FBI. We think that was the reason.”

Have any of your brothers left?

“Yeah, this happened to three of my brothers. One of them actually went to college after being out for a few years – he studied biophysical engineering – but he was older. And there’s two in Los Angeles. One of them is still trying to repent because he wants to go back into the religion. Then the other one, he was like that for a little bit, but now he’s kind of slowly adapting to the outside world. You’re not allowed any contact with your family after you leave, so I didn’t know any of this until I left.”

Did you ever question the religion?

“They would always tell us in church, if we had any questions to ‘put them on the shelf’. What they meant was to just not worry, because Warren Jeffs knew what he was doing. I don’t think people gossiped much at all and if they did they were usually found out.

“I thought that I was blessed because I happened to be born into the FLDS. We were always told that it was very wicked outside – I thought that normal people were miserable with their lives.