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Calgary documentary says forced marriages aren’t too far from home

Published: April 23rd, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

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 to her birth nation and forced into an unwanted marriage at age 13.

“People think that because we are in a first-world nation, these things don’t happen here, but they do,” she said.

“[This girl] was a child herself and she went through terrible, terrible things, there was a lot of violence involved, and she was 13 years old – that’s Grade 7 – can you imagine?”

To mark the 10th annual National Victims of Crime Awareness Week, the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association screened the documentary on Tuesday afternoon at the John Dutton Theatre.

Read More: http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/1346815/calgary-documentary-says-forced-marriages-arent-too-far-from-home/

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Tackling Honour Based Violence, Forced Marriage and FGM – 7th July – Central London

Published: April 18th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

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 speakers from police, education, local authorities, health and the voluntary sector to enhance partnership working and to examine how adopting a stronger multi-agency response can enable prevention, as well as early intervention and support for victims and those at risk.

Attend this event to gain crucial knowledge and make sure that your organisation is fully equipped to deliver effective, holistic services that safeguard vulnerable individuals.

Speakers Include:

  • Keynote: Chaz Akoshile, Joint Head, Forced Marriage Unit
  • Keynote: Tim Thompson, Deputy Chief, Crown Prosecutor, and London Lead for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
  • Chair: Aneeta Prem, Founder, Freedom Charity
  • Sophie Allen, Headteacher, Stonebridge Primary School
  • Alison Byrne, Specialist FGM Midwife, Heart of England NHS Trust, and Member, FGM National Clinical Group
  • Anthony Stansfeld, Police and Crime Commissioner, Thames Valley Police
  • Vivienne Hayes, CEO, Women’s Resource Centre

Website: http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/public-sector-conferences/detail/article/tackling-honour-based-violence-forced-marriage-and-fgm-conference.html?code=SMMK

Brochure: http://www.capitaconferences.co.uk/pdfgen.html?filename=HBV__FM_and_FGM.pdf&code=SMMK

Source: http://www.24dash.com/news/communities/2015-04-17-Tackling-Honour-Based-Violence-Forced-Marriage-and-FGM-7th-July-Central-London

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All-women shows of new FGM play from National Theatre of Scotland

Published: April 14th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

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 women and girls who have been cut, their mothers who feel the need to carry on the practice, and the health professionals, teachers and others who deal with the consequences.

FGM involves partial or total removal of external female genitalia.

The reasons for it are complicated and differ depending on a number of factors, including which of the African and the Middle East countries where FGM is concentrated the girl has come from or has roots. Bissett, whose previous work includes the powerful and award-winning Roadkill and Glasgow Girls, hopes the play will fairly and sensitively discuss FGM.

She said: “Theatre is an extremely powerful medium to explore complex stories, put cultural practice under the spotlight and to find sensitive ways of portraying traumatic human experiences.

Read More:http://www.thenational.scot/news/all-women-shows-of-new-fgm-play-from-national-theatre-of-scotland.2007

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Police at Liverpool John Lennon airport to raise awareness of human trafficking

Published: April 14th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

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 about issues like forced marriage, honour based violence and female genital mutilation.

Detective Chief Inspector Natalie Perischine from the Liverpool Protecting Vulnerable People unit, said: “This is a busy time of year when people will be using Liverpool John Lennon Airport to connect with destinations across the world.

“This operation is all about raising awareness of FGM, forced marriage and honour based violence and encouraging people to speak to us if they have information or concerns.

“School holidays can see an increase in the number of young people being forced to travel abroad and we are determined to work with LJLA and a range of partners to provide a visible presence and show our absolute commitment to tackling these problems and supporting victims.”

Read More: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/police-liverpool-john-lennon-airport-9022691

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An Afghan nightmare: Forced to marry your rapist

Published: April 9th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) It is an unimaginably hideous outcome.

To be raped by your cousin’s husband; be jailed for adultery as your attacker was married; to suffer the ignominy of global uproar about your jailing and assault, but be pardoned by presidential decree; and then to endure the shame and rejection from a conservative society that somehow held you to blame.

The solution in this society? Marry your attacker.

That’s what happened to Gulnaz, who was barely 16 when she was raped. She’s now carrying the third child of her attacker, Asadullah, who was convicted and jailed — though this was then reduced.

Gulnaz’s plight — like so much in beleaguered Afghanistan — disappeared from the world’s gaze once she was pardoned and released courtesy of a presidential pardon. Instead of a new start, what followed for Gulnaz was a quiet, Afghan solution to the “problem” — a telling sign of where women’s rights stand in Afghanistan despite the billions that have poured into this country from the U.S. government and its NATO allies during more than a decade of war.
Read More: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/07/asia/afghanistan-gulnaz-rape-marriage/

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The Incredible True Story of a 15-year-old American Escaping Forced Marriage

Published: April 1st, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

NEW YORK—Naila Amin was an American teenager who wore pink velour suits and smoked cigarettes. She had a contagious, loud laugh, and envisioned herself as a police officer when she grew up. Fast forward four months, Naila found herself trapped as a 15-year-old wife in Pakistan. Ten days after her forced marriage, she rebelled by running for her life through the streets of Islamabad.

There were few females out on that January afternoon in 2005. Naila quickened her steps as she walked by men in huts, men on dusty buses, men in honking trucks, and men buying fruits and kebabs from street carts. Many of them eyed her suspiciously.

Naila was still donned in Pakistani nuptial attire—a red dress, and Henna-laden hands. It looked strange that she was not with her husband.

She thought she should check into a hotel so she could avoid bumping into familiar faces. But the manager refused to take her in without a man by her side.

Read More: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1298869-child-marriages-in-the-u-s-a-hidden-epidemic/

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Our Film About ‘Honor Violence’ Should Not Be Censored

Published: April 1st, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

Last Sunday, a group of students at the University of South Dakota planned to attend a screening of our film, Honor Diaries, a documentary focused on the abuses women face under the honor system.

The film follows the stories of nine women’s rights activists — of Christian, Sikh, and Muslim backgrounds — as they tackle the taboo surrounding honor-based violence: murders in the name of honor, forced and early marriage, and female genital mutilation (FGM).

The film has won awards at multiple film festivals, been screened at the UK House of Commons, Amnesty International, and the UN in New York and Geneva, as well as hundreds of universities across the countries. But the students in South Dakota never got a chance to watch the film. They were not given the platform to explore its issues, celebrate its women, or become empowered by its message. A professor at the university who supports the film called it “stealth repression” that the film screening was mysteriously canceled. Organizers of another Honor Diaries screening, scheduled for April 10 at the university, have been under steady attack and pressure to do the same. Fortunately, they are holding out and standing strong in the name of freedom of expression, human rights and women’s empowerment.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/raheel-raza/honor-diaries_b_6968630.html

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Women call for laws to fight forced marriage in U.S.

Published: March 26th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

Mariam was a sixth-grader in Toronto when her family started pressuring her to get engaged. They sent her on a summer trip to their native Pakistan, ostensibly to study but actually to meet a fiance chosen by her aunt. When she protested after returning home, she said, her mother kept insisting and wearing her down.

“She cried a lot. She prayed loudly to God that I would change. She refused to speak to me for days. She told me the family’s honor was at stake,” recounted Mariam, now 20, who asked that her last name not be published. “I wanted to finish school and go to college, but at times I almost said yes, just so she would stop crying.”

Finally, when she turned 17, Mariam decided to leave home — an unthinkable act in her culture. With encouragement from a women’s rights group, she slipped out early one morning, taking a small bag. No shelter would accept her, because she had not been physically abused, and she felt wracked with guilt and loneliness. Eventually, though, she found housing, friends and a measure of emotional independence.

Today, Mariam is active in a growing movement in the United States and Canada to promote public awareness and legal protections for victims of forced marriage. She visited Washington last week as part of a nationwide tour organized by the Tahirih Justice Center, a legal aid and advocacy group in the Virginia suburbs that helps immigrant women facing abuse.

Read More: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150323/news/150329655/

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Law firm Makin Dixon says child sex abuse grooming ‘massive issue’ for Huddersfield

Published: March 26th, 2015 Updated: December 1st, 2021

Child sexual abuse grooming is a ‘massive issue’ for Huddersfield, a law firm has said.

West Yorkshire law firm Makin Dixon, which has offices on Queen Street, says it has been dealing with a marked increase in cases of girls being groomed for sex by older men.

The company has been working to obtain injunctions to prevent perpetrators contacting their victims, some of whom have children to their abusers. Makin Dixon partner, Jane Campbell, says victims and their relatives have become more willing to report abuse, which also includes ‘honour’ violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. But much of it still passes ‘under the radar’.

Ms Campbell, who works at Queen Street, says the company deals with hundreds of cases of ‘honour’ violence each year, together with about 100 cases of forced marriageacross West Yorkshire.

Read More: http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/child-sex-abuse-grooming-massive-8906647

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