The British Government now has a legal obligation to consider how the aid it gives a foreign country can help the rights of women and girls worldwide – including, for example, reducing forced marriage and FGM – under new rules going through Parliament on Thursday. International development secretary Justine Greening explains the significance This landmark […]

An anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) campaigner has urged men to play a more prominent role in tackling the issue. According to Edna Adan, former foreign minister of Somaliland, males have often taken the “easy way out” and dismissed FGM as a “woman’s affair”, the Evening Standard reports. She has therefore called on men to change their […]

“Honour” violence and forced marriage is a taboo subject but it is Time for Change, as reporter Sarah Dale finds out Halo shines a light on victims of “honour” violence and forced marriage. The Halo Project, now in its second year, provides support and, where necessary, intervention to protect those on Teesside at risk of […]

(CNSNews.com) – More than 12 years after the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban and deprive al Qaeda of a base operations, the sexual abuse of Afghanistan children has reached an all-time high, according to the U.S. State Department. The department’s 2013 Country Report on Human Rights in Afghanistan, which was released this month, […]

In its Sunday edition, the Tampere paper Aamulehti interviews Nasima Razmyar, chair of theMulticultural Women’s Association Monika, an NGO aimed at supporting immigrant women in Finland. She believes that dozens of young women or men based in Finland are forced into marriage with someone of their parents’ choosing annually. Razmyar bases her estimate on her […]

HONOUR-BASED violence and forced marriage cases were reported 22 times in Bournemouth & Poole last year, Dorset Police have confirmed. This information has been released to coincide with a conference taking place at Salterns Hotel, Poole, on Thursday, marking International Women’s Day. Among those set to speak at the conference, organised by Safer Poole Partnership to highlight the […]

Each year 14 million girls are forced into marriage according to the children’s charity Plan. While it often occurs in African and South Asian countries, it’s still an issue in Australia. Forced marriage has been illegal in Australia for 12 months, following amendments to the Slavery Act last year. The Slavery Act now recognises forced […]

In 2008, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Nicholas Phillips, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, both suggested that the UK could consider, in Lord Phillips’s words, “embracing Sharia law” because “there is no reason why Sharia Law, or any other religious code should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of […]

KARACHI: At least 708 boys and girls fell prey to forced and early marriages in Pakistan in the year 2013, which included 264 such cases in Punjab, 199 in Sindh, 143 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 102 cases in Balochistan, said the founder of Madadgaar Helpline, Zia Ahmed Awan at a roundtable conference titled, ‘Addressing Gender Base […]