The challenge is to let people – men and women – have their voices heard on the issue, Unicef says More than 30 million girls are at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) over the next decade, a study by Unicef has found. It said more than 125 million girls and women alive […]

Many teachers have little knowledge or training about FGM. Louise Tickle looks at what they can do to safeguard students. Mots of teachers aren’t even aware that female genital mutilation (FGM) goes on, says Lisa Zimmerman, a teacher at Bristol City Academy. She campaigns against FGM through the charity Integrate Bristol, which she co-founded five years […]

Nada Al-Ahdal must be one of the bravest people alive today. This 11-year-old Yemeni girl managed to escape the fate that befalls so many girls of her age: a forced marriage. Her story is harrowing. Nada, one of eight children, lived with her uncle in Saudi Arabia since she was three. According to Nada, her […]

The Ministry of Justice has introduced tougher penalties for those who break Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPO). It is now a criminal offence to breach a FMPO punishable by up to five years in prison. Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or both individuals do not (or cannot) consent to marriage, but are […]

Imagine being strapped down against your will and having your genitals removed with a shard of glass by someone with no medical expertise, in the most unhygenic of conditions. It sounds like something out of a horror movie. Yet this is the reality faced by millions of young girls and women across the world –female genital mutilation […]

A girl of seven was the youngest victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) treated by the NHS in the past two years, according to new data. Some 1,700 women and girls were treated by specialist FGM clinics but this masks a bigger problem says the NSPCC. A UK-wide helpline to protect girls at risk of ritual […]

Chandigarh, July 10: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC)  in its report has chronicled rampant large-scale trafficking of girls from other states into Haryana where they are held as bonded labourers and forced into marriages. Such girls are nicknamed Paro (of Devdas fame) in the villages of Haryana, particularly in Mewat area.  The girls […]

ALEM GENA, 23 February 2007 (IRIN) – Standing at the front of her classroom, Mulu Melka reads out of her English book in a shy voice like any other 13-year-old schoolgirl; betraying nothing of the fact that twice within two years, she has been abducted and forced into marriage. A target of the traditional practice, known […]

There are many instances where a marriage can be voidable (set aside) or ‘void’ where the marriage is treated as though it has never taken place. Examples include non-consummation of marriage, due to either inability or wilful refusal. There are other reasons relating to unawareness that the bride is already pregnant or that one party […]