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Posts Tagged ‘forced marriage’

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No arrests spark worry over new forced marriage legislation

Published: February 17th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

NO ARRESTS have been made in Lancashire under forced marriage laws since new legislation was introduced last summer – prompting fears the powers are not being used.

Forcing somebody to get married against their will was made a criminal offence in June and the move was welcomed by campaigners, who said the law would empower victims to report the issue to the police.

However, following a Freedom of Information request, the Lancashire Telegraph can revealed that in the eight months following the law’s introduction, not a single arrest was made in the county.

Forced marriage and domestic violence specialist Rachel Horman, a director at Watson Ramsbottom Solicitors, which has offices in Blackburn, Darwen, Great Harwood and Accrington, said she believed police were not putting their new powers to use.

Miss Horman, who is from Burnley, said: “It is definitely not a case that there have not been any forced marriages during this time. I have seen loads of cases in that period.

Read More: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/11796808.No_arrests_spark_worry_over_new_forced_marriage_legislation/

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Dramatic Video Shows Stark Contrast Between Life As A Child Bride And As A School Girl

Published: February 6th, 2015 Updated: February 6th, 2015

Girls give up a lot when they are forced into marriage.

A video produced by UNICEF highlights how different life is for a child bride as compared to a girl who can access an education.

The PSA — which focuses on child brides in Chad — begins with a girl who died during childbirth. It follows the girl’s life in reverse, reliving each step that preceded her death, before revealing how her life could have unfolded, had she avoided marriageand gone to school instead.

It ends with the girl happily attending class and meeting new friends.

“Girls who are married before their 18th birthdays are not only denied their childhood, but are often socially isolated and subjected to violence and limited opportunities for education and employment,” Bruno Maes, UNICEF representative in Chad, said, according to the organization. The humanitarian group notes that, in Chad, a girl is more likely to die giving birth than to attend secondary school.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/04/child-brides-chad-unicef_n_6607552.html

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Kidnapped at 13: Nepal’s Dalit child brides

Published: February 6th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

On a freezing night three years ago, 13-year-old Susmita Kami sneaked out of her husband’s house and didn’t stop running until she reached her parents’ doorstep in Nepal’s remote northwest.

Her escape from a forced marriage — a tradition many teenage girls from the Himalayan nation’s Dalit community are expected to uphold — was soon under threat. But Susmita’s parents resisted demands from her in-laws to send her back, deciding to stand by their pleading daughter who desperately wanted a better life.

“I told them I never wanted to get married and I wasn’t going back. I ran away because I wanted to stay in school,” Susmita, now 16, told AFP. Although Nepal banned child marriage in 1963, four out of ten girls are married before they turn 18, according to UNICEF.

Read More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2938991/Kidnapped-13-Nepals-Dalit-child-brides.html

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Halo Project Durham Launch

Published: February 4th, 2015 Updated: October 17th, 2022

Halo Project Durham Launch

The Halo Project Staff with Ron Hogg, PCC for Durham and Chaz Akoshile, Joint Head of The Forced Marriage Unit launching Halo’s new poster campaign to raise awareness for Honour Based Violence & Forced Marriage.

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How do we keep girls safe?

Published: January 28th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

I am hurrying through a maze of streets in a city in Pakistan with two officials from the British High Commission in Islamabad. It’s a race against time to rescue a British girl who fears she is being forced into marriage against her will. Sana, a 19-year-old from the Midlands, was brought here by her parents, lured with the promise that she could go to university. Instead, she was physically abused when she refused to marry a man she had never met.

Sana cannot leave the house and is afraid to speak on her mobile, but she can text. Smartphone technology enables British Consul Simon Minshull and his local colleague Neelam Farooq to pinpoint the house. Taken unawares, Sana’s parents let the officials in, and Farooq immediately insists on seeing her alone, telling her father they are concerned for her welfare. Once alone, Sana tells Farooq she is desperate to leave. “She has asked for assistance and we cannot refuse that,” Farooq firmly tells her father.

Now Minshull demands the girl’s British passport. While her father stalls, Farooq hustles Sana out. The family have made a phone call and more relatives are on their way. Things could turn nasty. Within minutes, Sana is in our armoured convoy and we are speeding away. A slight figure with a quiet but determined manner, she confides that she was terrified the officials would not come, or that her father would not let her go.

“The abuse was very bad,” she says, admitting she had considered suicide rather than go through a forced marriage: “I thought the easiest way out was death, hard as that is… either that or get the embassy to help.”

The dramatic rescue in Pakistan was the culmination of work by a special government team – the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) in the Foreign Office. It deals with around 1,400 cases a year but believes there may be more than 6,000. The unit has cases in 74 countries, but 42 per cent involve Pakistan, due to the large diaspora community in the UK. Last summer, forced marriage was made a criminal offence in Britain – a signal from the Government that the practice, which can lead to abuse, rape and murder, will no longer be tolerated. “Forced marriage is a government priority,” says Minshull, “and our commitment is that we will use the option of rescuing someone where we need to.”

Read More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11368822/How-do-we-keep-girls-safe.html

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‘Married at 15 to a man twice your age’ – ads against under-age marriage target migrants

Published: January 27th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

The New South Wales Government’s “Child Not Bride” campaign features an advertisement with two smiling schoolgirls.

It asks the question, “What girl dreams of being married at 15 to a man twice her age that she has never met?”

It goes on to emphasise that “being forced to marriage under-age ruins a girl’s future and is against the law in Australia.”

The advertisement is being printed in ethnic newspapers and through digital media, and a radio advertisement is also being produced in community languages.

Read More: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/01/27/married-15-man-twice-your-age-ads-against-under-age-marriage-target-migrants

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Halo tackles forced marriage

Published: January 24th, 2015 Updated: January 29th, 2015

VICTIMS of forced marriage and so-called honour-based violence are to get extra support, under a new project launched today (Friday, January 23).

The Halo project is being funded in County Durham and Darlington by Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg and was launched at The Durham Centre, on Belmont Industrial Estate, Durham.

It is aimed at ensuring victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence get the support and advice they need.

Among those attending the launch with Mr Hogg were the North East Chief Crown Prosecutor Gerry Wareham, Halo’s Yasmine Khan and victims of such crimes.

The event included the unveiling of a student Halo campaign, aimed at raising awareness of such issues among young people.

Source: http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/northdurham/durham/11746889.Halo_tackles_forced_marriage/

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How One Woman Escaped Forced Marriage and Thrived

Published: January 19th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it,” said Nelson Mandela. Nasreen Sheikh is, undoubtedly, one of the most courageous people I have ever met. She is a social entrepreneur living in Nepal and is subverting the typical role of a woman in her society. She is changing the lives of dozens of women in Nepal and has a goal to help hundreds more. This is Nasreen’s story.

At 23 years of age, Nasreen Sheikh radically redefines what it means to be a Nepali woman. She is a Sunni Muslim living in a predominately Hindu community and is the founder of a fair-trade sewing collective called Local Women’s Handicrafts, based in the country’s capital of Kathmandu. The company sells bags, scarves, wallets and shirts; and only employs women from disadvantaged backgrounds. The business focuses on empowering and educating women with the intent to change the cultural and social norms in Nepal.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/katie-zeppieri/forced-marriage-nepal_b_6489510.html

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Leo Burnett Designed This Shocking Cover of Cosmopolitan to Protest ‘Honor Killings’

Published: January 15th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

In 2004, a 17-year-old British-Pakistani woman named Shafilea Ahmed was suffocated and murdered by her parents, in front of her siblings, after she refused an arranged marriage.

Her death is referenced clearly and heartbreakingly on limited-edition covers of the February issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in the U.K. to raise awareness about so-called honor killings—in which a person is murdered by a family member for bringing what the killer believes is shame upon the family.

Leo Burnett Change, Leo Burnett’s specialist arm dedicated to social change, designed the cover, which features a plastic wraparound encasing an image of a woman appearing to be suffocated. It’s part of a campaign for Karma Nirvana, the U.K. charity that helps victims of honor-based violence.

Read More: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/leo-burnett-designed-shocking-cover-cosmopolitan-protest-honor-killings-162355

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