Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an internationally known women’s rights advocate and a best-selling author, but now she has some Silicon Valley muscle behind her in her battle to end two of radical Islam’s most barbaric practices. Ali, a Somali-born activist who went on to become a member of the Dutch parliament and now lives in […]

A nine-year-old girl has allegedly been involved in a case of forced marriage. The Australian Federal Police are investigating the allegations, adding to the other 33 other cases they are looking into across the country since forced marriages were criminalised in 2013. In the past 12 months, a total of 28 referrals have been received by […]

A frightened student is at a “confidential address” after her parents abused her following concerns about her “westernised behaviour”, a family court judge has been told. The woman’s father had told her “I am going to kill you now”, and said she needed to “die in a religious state”, Mr Justice Hayden heard. She had called […]

Spain appears poised to raise the minimum marrying age from 14 to 16, in a move aimed at protecting children from forced marriages and exploitation.  On Tuesday a parliamentary justice commission passed new legislation under which 14- and 15-year-olds will no longer be able to marry. The draft law will now go to the senate […]

A Phoenix woman forced into an arranged marriage was brought against her will to her “husband’s” apartment on Monday, where police say she was violently sexually assaulted. According to court documents obtained by New Times, the woman’s parents “married” her to 30-year-old Mohamed Abdullahi without her knowledge in November. Court documents show the marriage was […]

Calgary filmmaker Iman Bukhari is breaking open the hidden reality of forced marriages in Canada in her debut documentary, “Forced.” Bukhari spoke to 10 men and women who had been forced into marriage, all between the ages of 17 and 27, but only one agreed to appear in the film: a girl who was taken […]

Capita’s Tackling Honour Based Violence (HBV), Forced Marriage (FM) and FGM Conferencecomes as the government amends the Serious Crime Bill to introduce the mandatory duty to report all cases of female genital mutilation, and following the introduction of a new civil protection order that will protect those most at risk. This event brings together expert […]

THE National Theatre of Scotland is to put on its first women-only matinées for its new play about female genital mutilation. Rites, by the award-winning director and writer Cora Bissett and Manchester-based theatre practitioner Yusra Warsama, examines female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision or cutting.  Rites is based on interviews with young […]

Police officers will be at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, over the next few days, to talk to travellers about human trafficking. The officers will be in the departures area working with colleagues from Karma Nirvana and The UK Border Force Safeguarding Team speaking with people and offering them help if they have concerns or information […]