Girls all over the world are being deprived of their childhoods by being forced into early marriages. Who can forget the video released this summer of Nada al-Ahdal, the 11-year-old who escaped a forced union in Yemen. Nada told the world she’d “rather die” than live her life bound to the older man her parents had […]

SANAA – Forced into marriage when she was only 13, Saadah is now back in her impoverished Yemeni family’s cramped home with two children, little money and dreams of returning to school. “I don’t want a husband ever again. All I want is to get a divorce and study,” Saadah says as she sits in […]

Sara Batuk was forced into marriage in Turkey by her father when she was still a teenager – only for him to rescue her four years later when he could see the appalling abuse she suffered. Whether they’re kicking a football to one another in the park or poring over a pile of schoolbooks at […]

Ottawa will review a set of recommendations on forced marriage made in a recent groundbreaking study by the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario. The report, released last week, found 219 reported cases of forced marriage in Ontario between 2010 and 2012. Some 97 per cent of the reported victims were women. The majority of […]

A six-year-old rape victim is being forced to marry the eight-year-old son of the man who attacked her, it is being reported in India. It’s claimed the victim, who lives in the village of Keshavpura, in Rajasthan, was attacked by the 40-year-old around two weeks ago. Instead of going to police, her family complained to council […]

A Yemeni child bride who was forced to marry a violent husband three times her age when she was just 11 has spoken of the shocking sexual abuse she suffered at his hands for more than a decade. Noora Al Shami was given away to a distant cousin in his 30s because her parents did not […]

FORCED MARRIAGE CHARITY “FREEDOM” SEND OPEN LETTER TO  MICHAEL GOVE URGING FIGURES TO BE MADE AVAILABLE ON HOW MANY CHILDREN EXPECTED BACK AT SCHOOL AFTER  THE SUMMER HOLIDAY FAIL TO RETURN   4th October, 2013: Freedom Charity is urging the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, to collate and make publicly available figures on […]

Nearly 1,500 cases were dealt with by the government’s Forced Marriage Unit last year The government should keep records of how many young people fail to return to school after the summer holidays, a charity which helps children escape forced marriage has said. Aneeta Prem from Freedom Charity argued the information is needed to prosecute people […]

Almost half of forced marriages involving Britons come from the Pakistani community. Amid calls from charities for the government to do more to keep track of how many children are forced into marriage during school holidays, a shelter in Pakistan is providing refuge for some of those who have managed to escape. At a secret address […]