Archive for December, 2013

Saudi woman elopes, seeks asylum in Yemen

Published: December 10th, 2013 Updated: December 9th, 2013

Saudi woman elopes, seeks asylum in Yemen

Her outraged family alleges that her lover cast a magic spell and kidnapped her

Sana’a: A Saudi woman who fled her home last month to seek asylum in Yemen said that she would rather die than be forced to return home and marry a man she did not love.

“She has repeatedly said that she would kill herself if she was forced to return home and not be allowed to marry her beloved Arafat”, Abul Rageeb Al Ghadhi, the girl’s lawyer, told Gulf News.

The girl’s case came to the fore when the Saudi daily Okaz reported in mid-October that a Saudi man’s 21-year old daughter Huda had been abducted from their house in the Saudi province of Asir. Nearly ten days after her disappearance, Huda appeared before a Yemeni court saying that she was not abducted but willingly ran away from her family’s home to Yemen when her family refused her beloved’s marriage proposal.

The girl told the Saudi website Okaz Al Youm that she and Arafat had been in contact with each other on the sly for three years. “I love him and I told my family that I would only marry him.

Tags: forced, forced marriage, forced marriage unit, halo project, haloproject, honour, honour based violence
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Afghan landmark law failing to protect women: UN

Published: December 9th, 2013 Updated: December 9th, 2013

Kabul — The UN mission in Afghanistan on Sunday criticised authorities for poor implementation of a landmark law to protect women, 12 years after the repressive Taliban regime was ousted from power.

Donor nations, led by the US, point to the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law as a prized symbol of the success of the international effort in Afghanistan since 2001. But a report released by the UN said that prosecutions and convictions remained low under the 2009 law, which criminalises child marriage, forced marriage, forced self-immolation, rape and other violence against women.

“Implementation has been slow and uneven, with police still reluctant to enforce the legal prohibition against violence,” Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said. “Afghan authorities need to do much more to build on the gains made so far in protecting women and girls.”

The report comes amid fears that as the NATO-led military mission prepares to withdraw by the end of next year, religious conservatives are seeking to increase their influence and undermine advances in women’s rights. The report said that of about 1,670 registered incidents of violence against women in 16 provinces, only 109 cases — seven percent — went through a judicial process using the EVAW law.

Many cases were resolved through informal mediation, which often fails to protect women from further violence, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

Tags: Child Marriage Act, cultural stereotypes, forced marriage, Foreign Office, halo project, haloproject, honour
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Forced into marriage, man kills wife, passes it off as suicide

Published: December 5th, 2013 Updated: December 3rd, 2013

A man who allegedly killed his wife by smothering her to death with a pillow was arrested by police in Yeshwantpur late on Saturday night.

According to investigating officers, the arrested, Gangaraju, 22, tried to pass off the death as a suicide.

Employed as an electrician on a contract basis at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Gangaraju had married his cousin, Prema, 19, on July 29. Police added that Prema was the daughter of Gangaraju’s aunt. The couple had been living at a rented house in AK Colony, Mattikere.

The death was first reported when Gangaraju rushed an unconscious Prema to M S Ramaiah Hospital at 11.30 pm, claiming that she had consumed poison. However, doctors at M S Ramaiah Hospital declared Prema dead on arrival and informed local police of the suspicious nature of the death. Yeshwantpur police rushed to the spot and detained Gangaraju for questioning.

A senior police official said that a medical examination of the body contradicted Gangaraju’s statement about suicide. “While Gangaraju continued to claim that Prema had attempted suicide, it wasn’t long before he confessed to murder,” the official said.

Tags: halo project, honour, honour based violence
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Girls still sent to Kashmir for forced weddings

Published: December 4th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

MUZAFFARABAD, 18 November 2013 (IRIN) – From a distance, Jalila Ahmed* and Nabila Ahmed* look like ordinary village girls in their late teens, shopping at the local bazaar in a suburb of Mirpur, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

But move in a little closer, and the differences are more obvious: they struggle to communicate with the vendors, sometimes giggling between themselves as they try to find a name for a particular vegetable or herb. When they speak to each other, they do so in English, with an accent closer to Bradford than Bahawalpur. But they are careful, because they have been told not to talk to each other.

The two teenagers, distant cousins, say they were both forced into marriages a year ago, after being brought to Mirpur from the UK to “attend a family wedding.” It was only after they arrived in the city that they discovered the marriages they were attending were their own, both to distant relatives.

undreds of cases of forced marriage are thought to take place annually, involving British nationals married against their will in Kashmir, particularly in and around the industrial town of Mirpur. Since the late 19th century, Kashmir has had a large diaspora – estimated to be around one million – with many communities concentrating in British cities like Bradford, Glasgow and London. To preserve their culture and traditions, some families favour sending their children – particularly daughters – back to Kashmir.

Campaigners say such marriages are cruel, leading to “murders and chaos”, either as couples fail to get along or when young women resist. Shafilea Ahmed, 17 years old at the time of her murder nine years ago in the UK, was the victim of one such crime, which made headlines when her parents were brought to trial.

Tags: Female genital mutilation, forced, forced marriage unit, halo project, honour
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Moroccan Teenager Forced To Marry Her Rapist Kills Herself

Published: December 3rd, 2013 Updated: November 30th, 2013

Forced to marry the man who had raped her, a 16-year-old Moroccan girl committed suicide last month. She had been raped by another minor in the northern port city of Tetouan. As Abdel Ali El-Allawi, director of the local chapter of an international NGO, the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH), said to Al Jazeera, the rapist was first put into prison but that his family “entered negotiations with the family of the victim” and proposed that their son marry the teenager; her family assented.

Under Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code, rapists who marry their victims can be exonerated from their crime. He cannot be prosecuted unless the woman is able to obtain a divorce, a situation that is highly unlikely as, under Moroccan law, the decision of a judge authorizing such a marriage cannot be reversed.

Pressure to repeal the law rose last year after the suicide of 16-year-old Amina Filali, who killed herself with rat poison after she had been forced to marry her rapist who was ten years older than her. She had also been regularly beaten by her husband and mistreated by his family, whom she lived with after being married. After her suicide, her rapist was summoned by the police and then released.

Khadija Riyadi, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, explains that a woman who loses her virginity is considered unmarriageable and guilty of dishonoring her family, even if she was raped.

Last year, women’s rights groups like Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles (MALI) and women’s rights activists demonstrated and demanded that Article 475 be repealed. The calls to do so spread beyond Morocco, with a Twitter hashtag #RIPAmina calling for Article 475 to be eliminated.

Tags: forced, forced marriage, halo project, honour, kidnap, victims
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Watch: Islamic scholars say forced marriage claims ‘exaggerated’

Published: December 1st, 2013 Updated: November 30th, 2013

Last week, Yle reported claims that some immigrant families in Western Finland were sending their underage daughters abroad for forced marriages. Islamic scholars say such cases are not about religion and girls should have more information about their rights.

Attendees at the weekend Islam Expo in Helsinki were clear about Islam forbidding forced marriages. None were aware of a single case in Finland. Many suspected reports to be merely rumours.

Faduma Mohammud of Helsinki speculated girls may have been sent abroad after straying from treligious strictures and misbehaving:

According to Islamic scholars – not even bad behaviour would justify a forced marriage.

Imam Annas Hajjar says forced marriages are not a part of Islam at all – when marrying both parties have to answer “yes”.

Tags: Child Marriage Act, cultural stereotypes, forced marriage, halo project, haloproject, honour based violence
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Forced marriage and the “lawfully wedded” wife

Published: December 1st, 2013 Updated: November 30th, 2013

Today, on the 32nd International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill reaches the Committee stage of the House of Lords. The Bill introduces a raft of measures covering matters as diverse as dangerous dogs, extradition proceedings, firearms and, tucked away in Part 10, forced marriage. Forced marriage is to be criminalised. “Was it not already?”, you may ask. The current law Forced marriage is where one or both parties to a marriage lack consent and duress is a factor. Forcing an individual to marry is a breach of Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights: the right to marry and found a family (a right which includes the requirement that parties to the marriage have given full consent). It has been the subject of legislation since the introduction of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007, which made a civil remedy available to victims.

This took the form of a Forced Marriage Protection Order (FMPO). Under the Act, victims of forced marriage and those facing forced marriage are able to apply for a FMPO. Relevant third parties, such as local authorities, are also able to apply for FMPOs and third parties not designated “relevant” can apply for the order with the permission of the court. A power of arrest can also be attached and the breach of a FMPO is treated as contempt of court. A FMPO made under this legislation is wide reaching and can apply to conduct both inside and outside England and Wales. How this will change The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill will criminalise the breach of these civil orders, as well as creating the specific offence of forcing someone to marry. Under the new legislation, breach of a FMPO will now carry a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment.

Tags: cultural stereotypes, forced, forced marriage, forced marriage unit, Foreign Office, halo project, honour, honour based violence
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Archive for December, 2013