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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

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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Government to urge for action to protect women and girls in emergency situations

Published: November 30th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

The Government will urge for international action to protect women and girls from violence and sexual exploitation in emergency situations. Girls and women in crisis situations, such as flood, famine and conflict, face a greater risk of abuse, violence, forced marriage and sexual exploitation.

Intervention in these cases are often not prioritised because their situation is not thought to be life-threatening. The Department for International Development will host an event for donors, the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations and urge that abuse and violence against women and girls is prioritised during a crisis. The pledge comes after a report suggested that female Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon are vulnerable to abuse.

Since the Syria conflict began almost two million people have fled the country, according to figures released by the United Nations.

Around one million refugees are believed to be in Lebanon – nearly a quarter of the country’s population – and many women are in danger of being abused or sexually exploited, according to a report by Oxfam and ABAAD – Resource Center for Gender Equality. The research suggests that men in refugee camps have low self-esteem because of the situation they find themselves in and vent their frustration towards women and girls.

Violence towards women and children has increased as some men vent their frustration and abuse their power within the household. Outside the household, there are also examples of women and girls who are vulnerable to physical and verbal harassment, including sexual harassment, and in many areas they fear kidnap, robbery, and attacks.

Widowed or other women on their own are particularly vulnerable, with some pretending in public to receive phone calls from their former husbands, to protect themselves from male harassment.

– SHIFTING SANDS REPORT BY OXFAM AND ABAAD – RESOURCE CENTER FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Early marriage of daughters – which was common in Syria before the conflict began – also increased in refugee camps as a way to either protect young girls or ease financial pressures on the family, the report suggested.

Tags: halo project, honour, honour based violence, marriage, pregnant, rape
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Anti-forced marriages plan adopted

Published: November 30th, 2013 Updated: November 30th, 2013

THE social, humanitarian and cultural (third) committee of the United Nations (UN) has adopted a resolution aimed at ending early and forced marriages.
The adopted resolution would be co-chaired and co-sponsored by Zambia and Canada. According to a statement by First Secretary for Press and Public Relations at the Permanent Mission of Zambia to the UN, Chibaula Silwamba, the third committee of the UN adopted by consensus the resolution titled ‘Child, Early, and Forced Marriage’ with a record 109 member-States as co-sponsors. Zambia’s envoy to the UN Mwaba Kasese-Bota told the 193 UN member States on Thursday last week that so many children had been forced into early marriages, a practice which deprived them of the full enjoyment of their rights as children. The practice also set them up for a compromised adulthood where they were unlikely to realise their full potential.
Dr Kasese-Bota said the high number of co-sponsors demonstrated the global support for the elimination and possible eradication of child, early and forced marriage.

Tags: forced marriage, halo project, honour, kidnap
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Honour-based family violence often unreported, say experts

Published: November 29th, 2013 Updated: November 25th, 2013

Calgary police and educators are learning about how to recognize and deal with honour-based violence.

Social agencies say such violence is prevalent in the city and often involves child and spousal abuse.

“What we see, what makes it into the news, is simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these types of issues,” says John Winterdyk, president of the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association.

The two-day conference is sponsored by Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association and includes police, teachers, lawyers, health-care workers and judges. Aruna Papp, the keynote speaker on Monday, agrees that most honour-based crimes still go unreported. “How do we prevent it? We are not training the professionals. There always seems to be less funding,” she said.

Papp is a victim of honour-based violence, which is defined by organizers in a press release as violence that “stems from a matrix of cultural values premised on women’s inferiority.” Papp says it happens when girls and women who are new to the country embrace Canadian values. “They go to school and they are taught that you can think for yourself, you can make decisions for yourself, you can choose your spouse, you can choose your career,” she said.

Tags: forced, forced marriage, halo project, haloproject, honour, violence
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UK arranged marriages: Kidnapping, rape and murder in the name of family honour

Published: November 27th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

“We have kidnappings, abductions, assaults, sexual offences. Anything that you can imagine could happen, does happen, in the name of honour,” says Nazir Afzal, Crown Prosecutor for the north-west of England.

And murder – 10 to 12 cases a year. Yet as the hyper-active, smartly dressed lawyer concedes in his Manchester office, violence invoked in the name of family honour, mostly by citizens of South Asian and Middle Eastern origin, is often hidden and unreported. Mr Afzal knows about honour, having grown up in Birmingham in a Pakistani Muslim household.

Honour, he says, can be a good thing, helping bind families and communities together. But, “at the moment in so many communities, in so many families, it is merely used to suppress women, to oppress women. So, if they misbehave in some way, or make their own choice, they have dishonoured the family. If men do the same, well it’s men – you know they do what they want. Regrettably too often it’s used to control women.”

After World War II, Britain received waves of migrants from its former colonies in India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh. Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others came, some for higher education, but mostly to work in the factories around London and in the Midlands and north of England. In England, generations who self-identify as Asian now number more than 4 million, 8 per cent of the English population.

Tags: forced marriage, forced marriage unit, Foreign Office, halo project, honour based violence, marriage, victims
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Schools need to do more over forced marriage dangers

Published: November 26th, 2013 Updated: November 25th, 2013

Schools must do more to warn children about the dangers of forced marriage, the Lords was told today.

Labour spokeswoman Baroness Thornton said there was evidence that schools were doing “very little to ensure pupils are informed about forced marriage and offer them necessary support if they need it”.

She added: “In fact there is some evidence that some schools are putting students at risk by contacting family members when children had consulted teachers in confidence.” Lady Thornton was speaking during committee stage debate on the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which makes forcing someone into a marriage a criminal offence.

The Opposition was calling for front line staff to be given better guidance on how to deal with the problem. Lady Thornton said the Department for Education did not treat forced marriage as a “child protection issue” in many schools and criminalisation was not enough to tackle forced marriage on its own.

Schools, colleges, police, doctors, social services and airport staff must be aware of what to look for and the appropriate action that needed to be taken. Action taken was not “uniform or adequate” at present, she said.

Tags: forced, halo project, haloproject, honour based violence, marriage, marry, violence
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Hope at last for Yemen’s child brides as the country’s leaders finally act to stop forced marriages of girls as young as NINE

Published: November 25th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

From Sally Al-Sabahi who, after being married at the age of 10, was raped and beaten by her much older husband to 13-year-old Ilham who, in 2010, died from internal bleeding four days after being forcibly married, the plight of Yemen’s child brides makes for harrowing reading. But following international condemnation and campaigns by charities such as UNICEF and Equality Now, the country’s government finally appears ready to end the shocking tradition once and for all.

Fouad Al Ghaffari, the director general of Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights, has revealed that the country’s minister for Legal Affairs, Mohammed Al Mikhlafi, is to submit a bill that would outlaw child marriages if passed. And in a sign that attitudes might finally be changing in the Middle Eastern country, it was reported last week that police officers stepped in to prevent the marriage of a nine-year-old girl in the southern city of Taiz – the first time such an intervention has taken place.

According to reports on the BBC website, police halted the wedding and convinced the father of the girl, named locally as Hiba, not to allow the nuptials to go ahead.

Although there is nothing currently to prevent Hiba’s wedding from happening at a later date, campaigners are cautiously welcoming of the intervention and the news that legislation could be imminent. ‘In 2009, the Yemeni parliament considered a draft bill that fixed the minimum age of marriage for girls at age 17 and included penalties and punishment for those in violation,’ said Equality Now’s Middle East and North Africa consultant, Suad Abu-Dayyeh.

‘Unfortunately this was not successful, but we are heartened that the Yemeni Human Rights Minister Hooria Mashhour has requested the reintroduction of this bill, which would effectively ban child marriages in the country.’

Tags: halo project, honour, kidnap, marriage, victims
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Forced marriage could be made a crime in Scotland

Published: November 19th, 2013 Updated: November 17th, 2013

MSPs are seeking views on whether forced marriage should be a criminal offence.

Holyrood’s Justice Committee wants to know if people believe criminalisation would be an improvement or if present safeguards are sufficient.

The call for evidence comes after an attempt by Westminster to legislate for Scotland on the criminalisation for forced marriage.

The UK Bill would make it a criminal offence for any person to use violence, threats or any other form of coercion to force someone to marry without their free and full consent.

Tags: Asian, halo project, honour, honour based violence, marriage, marry, murder, pregnant, rape, victims
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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Watch: Islamic scholars say forced marriage claims ‘exaggerated’

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.

Forced marriage and the “lawfully wedded” wife

Government to urge for action to protect women and girls in emergency situations

Anti-forced marriages plan adopted

Honour-based family violence often unreported, say experts

UK arranged marriages: Kidnapping, rape and murder in the name of family honour

Schools need to do more over forced marriage dangers

Hope at last for Yemen’s child brides as the country’s leaders finally act to stop forced marriages of girls as young as NINE

Forced marriage could be made a crime in Scotland

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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

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.

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