{"id":487,"date":"2014-01-31T08:55:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T08:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/?p=487"},"modified":"2021-12-01T14:30:17","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T14:30:17","slug":"meet-the-cops-who-save-women-from-forced-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/meet-the-cops-who-save-women-from-forced-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the cops who save women from forced marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Last May, homicide detectives Chris Boughey and Jeff Balson were in the City Council chambers for Peoria, Ariz., recipients in the police department\u2019s annual awards ceremony, when Balson received a text message:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHelp, I am out of the country and I don\u2019t think I am ever going to get back. What do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"cq-textimage-jsp-\/content\/ajam\/articles\/2014\/1\/24\/meet-the-cops-whosavewomenfromforcedmarriage\/jcr:content\/mainpar\/textimage_0\"><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>The message was sent from a college-age woman whose family had sent her to the Middle East under the guise of visiting relatives. But they were worried that her Westernized behavior had dishonored them, and their actual aim was to force her into a marriage without her consent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as she landed, her mom took her passport and documentation and said, \u2018Forget everything you have ever known about America, because you are never going back,\u2019\u201d said Balson, who would not reveal the woman\u2019s country of origin or name to protect her identity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>According to Balson, 39, the girl did nothing shameful. One of her friends had tagged her in a group photo on Facebook. A family member abroad saw it and alerted her parents. He said the photo was \u201cnot risqu\u00e9\u201d and there was \u201cno skin showing.\u201d But there were boys, and the photo looked as though it had been taken in a bar or club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>While she was abroad, she and Balson sent secret messages using a secure messaging app. He and Boughey were planning her escape.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/america.aljazeera.com\/articles\/2014\/1\/24\/meet-the-cops-whosavewomenfromforcedmarriage.html\">http:\/\/america.aljazeera.com\/articles\/2014\/1\/24\/meet-the-cops-whosavewomenfromforcedmarriage.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last May, homicide detectives Chris Boughey and Jeff Balson were in the City Council chambers for Peoria, Ariz., recipients in the police department\u2019s annual awards ceremony, when Balson received a text message: \u201cHelp, I am out of the country and I don\u2019t think I am ever going to get back. What do I do?\u201d The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,8,10,31],"class_list":["post-487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-halo-project","tag-honour","tag-honour-based-violence","tag-victims"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1799,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487\/revisions\/1799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}