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Posts Tagged ‘rape’

‘Schools must act in the war on forced marriage’

Published: January 16th, 2014 Updated: December 1st, 2021

Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of the Leeds-based Karma Nirvana charity, who escaped her own forced marriage aged just 16, was at Allerton Grange School to launch the drive. It is part of her ongoing work to encourage the Government, schools, police and other agencies to focus on the issue as a child protection matter first and foremost.

Miss Sanghera told the YEP: “Victims always start their journey in school so their engagement is at the heart of prevention. There are real concerns about the lack of school engagement – and yet the majority of our victims are in British classrooms.

“We have highlighted to Government very worrying concerns about this and the real issues of missing children (absences) as being a link to a victim of forced marriage.” The charity has written to schools across West Yorkshire and is hoping to engage with teaching unions.

Tags: forced marriage, forced marriage unit, halo project, honour based violence, rape
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Government to urge for action to protect women and girls in emergency situations

Published: November 30th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

The Government will urge for international action to protect women and girls from violence and sexual exploitation in emergency situations. Girls and women in crisis situations, such as flood, famine and conflict, face a greater risk of abuse, violence, forced marriage and sexual exploitation.

Intervention in these cases are often not prioritised because their situation is not thought to be life-threatening. The Department for International Development will host an event for donors, the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations and urge that abuse and violence against women and girls is prioritised during a crisis. The pledge comes after a report suggested that female Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon are vulnerable to abuse.

Since the Syria conflict began almost two million people have fled the country, according to figures released by the United Nations.

Around one million refugees are believed to be in Lebanon – nearly a quarter of the country’s population – and many women are in danger of being abused or sexually exploited, according to a report by Oxfam and ABAAD – Resource Center for Gender Equality. The research suggests that men in refugee camps have low self-esteem because of the situation they find themselves in and vent their frustration towards women and girls.

Violence towards women and children has increased as some men vent their frustration and abuse their power within the household. Outside the household, there are also examples of women and girls who are vulnerable to physical and verbal harassment, including sexual harassment, and in many areas they fear kidnap, robbery, and attacks.

Widowed or other women on their own are particularly vulnerable, with some pretending in public to receive phone calls from their former husbands, to protect themselves from male harassment.

– SHIFTING SANDS REPORT BY OXFAM AND ABAAD – RESOURCE CENTER FOR GENDER EQUALITY

Early marriage of daughters – which was common in Syria before the conflict began – also increased in refugee camps as a way to either protect young girls or ease financial pressures on the family, the report suggested.

Tags: halo project, honour, honour based violence, marriage, pregnant, rape
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Forced marriage could be made a crime in Scotland

Published: November 19th, 2013 Updated: November 17th, 2013

MSPs are seeking views on whether forced marriage should be a criminal offence.

Holyrood’s Justice Committee wants to know if people believe criminalisation would be an improvement or if present safeguards are sufficient.

The call for evidence comes after an attempt by Westminster to legislate for Scotland on the criminalisation for forced marriage.

The UK Bill would make it a criminal offence for any person to use violence, threats or any other form of coercion to force someone to marry without their free and full consent.

Tags: Asian, halo project, honour, honour based violence, marriage, marry, murder, pregnant, rape, victims
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Court refuses declaration of non-recognition of forced marriage of 14 year old girl

Published: November 9th, 2013 Updated: November 9th, 2013

Declaration barred by section 58(5) of Family Law Act 1986

Mr Justice Holman has dismissed an application, brought by a local authority in the course of care proceedings, for a declaration of non-recognition of the marriage of a British girl, then 14, conducted in Pakistan under circumstances of extreme duress.

In A Local Authority v X & Anor [2013] EWHC 3274 (Fam) the court heard that X, the girl, was born in England in 1997. Her parents had immigrated to England from Pakistan some 40 years earlier. In 2011, aged 14, X travelled with her father and brother to Pakistan where, under considerable duress involving the production of a gun and physical violence upon her, she underwent a ceremony of marriage to a 24 year old man. The marriage was consummated two weeks later and X became pregnant. She returned to England and the baby was born in the autumn of 2012. The local authority commenced care proceedings in relation to X and the baby.
Within the care proceedings the local authority, with the support of X through her Guardian, sought a declaration of non-recognition of the marriage in Pakistan.

The court found that X was domiciled in England at the time of the marriage and the validity of the marriage was therefore governed by the Marriage Act 1949. Pursuant to that Act which stipulates that a marriage between persons either of whom is under 16 shall be void, the marriage was found to be void. The case of Pugh v Pugh [1951] P 482 establishing that the statutory provisions as to minimum age are extra-territorial in effect was approved.

Holman J said:

“On the facts as I have recounted them, there is no question but that X herself, who is now approaching the age of seventeen, could present a petition for nullity on the ground that her marriage is void on the ground that at the date of the marriage she was under the age of sixteen.” However, Vanessa Meachin, counsel for X, said that it was too much to expect X, at any rate at her present age and stage in life, herself to take an active step that would be so defiant of her parents and family as herself to petition for a decree that the marriage that they forced her to enter into was void.

Tags: child exploitation, forced, forced marriage, halo project, haloproject, honour based violence, rape, victims, violence
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‘My husband treated me as a sex object. He saw marriage as a means to act like a depraved animal’: Yemeni child bride who was married to a man three times her age when she was just ELEVEN

Published: October 10th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

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 want her live in poverty. As young girl, she was excited to be the centre of attention at a lavish three-day wedding party in the port city of Al Hudaydah where she was allowed to wear ‘three really beautiful dresses’ for each day. But almost as soon as the celebrations had ended she was quickly thrust into a world of physical and psychological abuse from which she could not escape.

She told The Guardian: ‘It was at the end of the wedding that the fear and horror set in. ‘He was three times my age and saw marriage as a means to act like a depraved animal.’ She told how she ‘immediately began to quiver and cry’ when she was driven to the house her husband shared with his father. When the clerical worker first took off his clothes, she ran away in terror and desperately avoided sex for 10 days. And when she was eventually pressured into consummating the marriage, she said her body went into shock and she was rushed to hospital. She described being ‘treated like a sex object’ but said no one was interested in helping her because she was ‘legally his wife’.

Tags: Asian, haloproject, pregnant, rape
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Canada can make a difference in ending child and forced marriage

Published: September 26th, 2013 Updated: September 25th, 2013

Every September, global leaders descend on New York for an annual rite of passage. They go to mark the ceremonial opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Often characterized by high-level presidential and prime ministerial speeches, the UNGA is also an opportunity for in-the-trenches progress toward making the world a better place. One such opportunity will take place this Wednesday, Sept. 25.

On that day, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will work to rally support from other countries to tackle an issue whose proper place, really, is in ancient history texts, but sadly continues to plague the world today: the ongoing practice of forcing children, mostly girls, to marry someone against their will. In the developing world, one in three girls takes wedding vows by the time she is 18. That translates into 14 million child marriages per year, often dooming these brides to lifelong servitude and misery. Clearly, child marriage is morally repugnant and a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that marriage requires “free and full consent.” But the issue goes well beyond human rights. Child marriage is a major impediment to poverty reduction and economic development. Child brides are almost always forced to drop their schooling and, thereby, become unable to contribute to achieving broader social and economic goals.

Enabling girls in developing countries to remain in school longer, on the other hand, would have a positive impact on them as well as the countries they live in. If children, especially girls, remain in school until at least age 15, they not only enhance essential reading and arithmetic knowledge but also learn life skills, including an appreciation of their basic rights and how to assert them. As well, those extra years take them through puberty, a time when many girls in the world first confront forced marriages or are shunted away from the classroom to focus on housework and other chores. Indeed, a girl with some secondary education is less likely to marry too young than a girl with only primary education or less. Eradicating child marriage also has significant health benefits, not only for young brides. The earlier a girl becomes pregnant, the higher the risk of death for both her and her children due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. In developing nations, these complications are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15 to 19. And infant deaths are 50 per cent more likely in these cases .

Yet the heinous tradition of child and forced marriage is by no means only a developing world phenomenon. In 2012, as many as 1,485 possible forced marriage cases prompted the attention and resources of the U.K. government’s Forced Marriage Unit which has been tasked with combatting the practice of forced marriage within Britain. There are signs this issue has made its mark in Canada as well.

Tags: forced marriage, halo project, haloproject, honour based violence, rape
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John Baird to lead UN session on kids forced into marriage

Published: September 26th, 2013 Updated: September 25th, 2013

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is set to co-host a UN session looking at how to prevent early forced marriage in developing countries.

The session, “Too Young to Wed,” will discuss the plight of child brides and the implications on health and education for women when they’re married as children. Statistics provided by Baird’s office show girls under 15 years old are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, and children born to mothers under 18 years old are 60 per cent more likely to die in their first year of life. Childbirth is the leading cause of death for girls 15 to 18 years old. Girls living in poverty are twice as likely to be married before they turn 18.

Baird and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are in New York City for UN meetings on women and children. Baird will also make a speech to the UN General Assembly.

Tags: forced marriage, halo project, marriage, rape
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India: Mum Forced Daughter to Marry HIV+ Man – Then Helped Him Rape Her

Published: September 20th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

The mother of a 16-year-old girl in Mumbai forced her to marry an HIV-positive man – and then helped him rape her repeatedly. According to the victim, from the suburban town of Kalwa, her mother began the abuse by blackmailing her into marriage and manipulating her age to ensure it was allowed. “After hearing talk of my marriage, I tried to escape from the house. But my mother chased me till the station and forced me to get off the train. She consumed phenyl to blackmail me into staying,” the victim told police.

“I was left with no option but to marry this guy, knowing full well that he was HIV-positive.” According to the girl’s statement, she was forced into having sex with the man as soon as the marriage was concluded. Her mother would pin her to the ground, tie her hands together and stuff her mouth with cloth to prevent her screaming. The pair allegedly beat the girl black and blue when she tried to resist the man as he continued to abuse her.

“On many occasions I was beaten with bamboo sticks. When I still refused to give up, my mother forced me to have cold drinks laced with sedatives so that he could rape me,” the girl said in her statement, according to a report in NDTV.

The teenager claims the man, a distant relative and long-time neighbour, had helped her family financially on a number of occasions and thus her indebted mother allowed him to marry and rape her.

Tags: forced, halo project, haloproject, honour based violence, rape, victims
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Indian rape victim, six, is forced to marry eight-year-old son of the ‘man who attacked her’

Published: September 6th, 2013 Updated: December 1st, 2021

Girl was ‘locked in a room and raped’ by a 40-year-old man a fortnight ago
She is being forced to marry her attacker’s son by Indian council elders
Her parents, who live in Rajasthan, are protesting against the decision
Victim is believed to have been raped by same man again on Wednesday

A six-year-old Indian girl who was locked in a room and raped is being forced to marry the eight-year-old son of her alleged attacker. The victim, who lives in the village of Keshavpura, in Rajasthan, was attacked by the 40-year-old around two weeks ago, it is claimed. Instead of going to police, her family complained to council elders who held a meeting to decide what should happen to the alleged rapist.

Astonishingly, they then told the girl’s parents that their daughter must marry her attacker’s eight-year-old son. Meanwhile, the girl is believed to have been raped by the same man again on Wednesday, according to NDTV. The victim’s family has refused to accept the elders’ decision. The case is the latest in a string of horrific sexual assaults on women and young girls in India, including a fatal attack on a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi late last year and the rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai last month.

Tags: Asian, halo project, haloproject, rape
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Posts Tagged ‘rape’

‘Schools must act in the war on forced marriage’

Government to urge for action to protect women and girls in emergency situations

Forced marriage could be made a crime in Scotland

Court refuses declaration of non-recognition of forced marriage of 14 year old girl

‘My husband treated me as a sex object. He saw marriage as a means to act like a depraved animal’: Yemeni child bride who was married to a man three times her age when she was just ELEVEN

Canada can make a difference in ending child and forced marriage

John Baird to lead UN session on kids forced into marriage

India: Mum Forced Daughter to Marry HIV+ Man – Then Helped Him Rape Her

Indian rape victim, six, is forced to marry eight-year-old son of the ‘man who attacked her’

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