Forced Marriages Dishonour Britain

January/February 2012

Not all victims take Meena's view. Many, like Razia, do not wish to see their parents in court. When she was 16, Razia was told by her mother that she was promised to the son of a family friend. "I had no idea what marriage really was, except for the fairytale notion of a wedding dress and being swept off my feet. But on my wedding night, when I was 17 years old, I was raped — I know that now — because he thought it his right to have sex with me. I ran away after six months and got help. My parents still won't speak to me, two years later."

Why is Razia protective of her parents after the distress she has been through? "They felt they were doing their best for me. If they thought I would be so unhappy, I don't think they would have made me marry him."

In the UK, forced marriage affects mainly women and girls from South Asia as well as smaller numbers from Sudan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Armenia, Somalia and the Irish traveller community. FCO dealt with over 1,735 cases in 2010, whereas estimates from feminist organisations dealing with the issue range from 450 to 1,000 victims a year. The difficulty of collecting data is compounded by the fact that the line between an arranged marriage and a forced one is not always clear.

The debate about criminalisation began in November 2001, only weeks after 9/11. Patricia Hewitt, then Minister for Women, announced a "project" to "eliminate" forced marriages in Britain's Asian communities. Hewitt argued that the fear of being accused of racism had stopped politicians from confronting cultural beliefs that were "unacceptable in Western societies". She said it was time to "go beyond multiculturalism" and call for a reinforcement of essential British values. But there was resistance from some within the Muslim community who did not accept that forced marriage should be dealt with by the criminal justice system.

Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, claimed that merely airing the issue risked inflaming tensions. "It is playing supremacy, saying, ‘We are better than you, we have got certain standards which are better than yours'." He added: "This . . . nationalistic sort of debate . . . goes against the fabric of multiculturalism."

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Anonymous

May 23rd, 2012
11:05 PM

"...liberals sympathetic to some forms of Sharia law" if they are moral relativists, then they are NOT liberals, the liberal position is that we are all equal before the law, NOT separate laws for different cultures. Moral relativists are just that: moral relativists. Moral relativists are not liberals.

Anonymous

April 21st, 2012
4:04 PM

The European Court also overruled a British Law restricting forced marriages seemingly on the grounds that the right of men to a family life overrides the right of young women to be abducted.

harkin

January 21st, 2012
6:01 PM

Tell the liberals that the religion is christianity and the women are being sent to Utah and they'll do everything they can to stop it.

Darkman

January 20th, 2012
2:01 AM

No surprises that white "feminists" are more than ready to throw women under the bus when a non-Western tradition or culture is involved. Similarly, in the US, NOW deserted Nicole Brown & sided with the black "leadership" consensus that OJ was targeted by the "racist" LAPD. This is where moral relativism leads us...to the ironic sight of morally-righteous "progressives" sacrificing those they claim to champion. The same people who wouldn't countenance certain behaviors by their native citizenry, look the other way or merely pay lip service when such behaviors are committed by the "other." Multicultural piety serves as penitence for Western liberal guilt.

Anonymous

January 19th, 2012
2:01 PM

The study by Aisha Gill is misrepresented as "evidence" in this article. In fact, it is just a survey of the viewpoints expressed by the women's organisations that responded. Several of these organisations have insisted for years that criminalising forced marriage will put victims off reporting, but their assumptions are not backed up by any actual evidence from victims. In fact, as the young woman quoted in your article shows, some victims are strongly in favour of criminalisation. This point is also made in this blog http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/12/21/its-time-to-criminalise-forced.... Secondly, something like 44 per cent of organisations surveyed were actually in favour of criminalisation, which is a sizeable chunk. It's a shame those voices weren't heard in this article. Karma Nirvana, a charity which helps hundreds of victims of forced marriage each year, is among those in favour of forced marriage, as is the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation which also helps forced marriage victims and honour violence. For those victims who don't want to prosecute their parents, they don't have to. As with domestic violence, if a woman decides not to cooperate with the police or to withdraw a statement a prosecution rarely goes ahead.

Mike

January 15th, 2012
9:01 PM

Wow, what a totally one dimensional way of thinking. The long and short of it is: if you are moving to or living in a western country you have the right as an individual to choose whether you want to participate in forced marriages or not. Quite obviously, your family or anyone else in your community may not agree with your decision and you as an indivudal will have to deal with that. You will probably be disowned and bring shame to your family but that is the consequence for bucking the cultural trend. The law should be there to protect your decision but should never enforce the widespread abolition of forced marriages. That is where our western bias oversteps its boundaries and imposes itself upon foreign "barbaric" cultural traditions, despite support or denouncement of multiculturalism. Either way, what a horrible article.

Sakib Hameed

January 8th, 2012
10:01 PM

what a daft article! This article completely dodged the notion that 'honour' killings happen globally under different guises. There are men who murder their daughter's boyfriends and in one case in Canada, killed a lesbian daughter and her mother! Yet their religion is not mentioned at all and nor is their ethnic background! The term 'honour' is only attached to crimes committed by Asian and African ethnic minorities and particularly Muslims despite the world saying otherwise. Also, to blame this on 'shariah' despite the fact that Islam doesn't permit forced marriages combined with the fact that forced marriages happen in plenty of non Muslim communities too, proved that this author really doesn't seem to know what she is talking about!

Anonymous

December 22nd, 2011
11:12 AM

This is a good move forward. All females of society should be protected at all levels.

Anonymoustrisha

December 21st, 2011
4:12 PM

Brave lady!!

Anonymous

December 21st, 2011
3:12 PM

Good article!

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