Percy Bysshe Shelley - William Shakespeare - Jasvinder Sanghera - The Forced Marriage Unit TV - Kidnapped and Drugged for Family Honour TV - Mrs Justice Parker - World Council of Churches - Sayeeda Warsi - Storyville TV - Exposure TV - Inside the Foreign Office TV - Evil Up Close TV - Strange Rituals TV - I Was a Child Bride TV - Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey TV -
Marriage: it is as if a dead and living body had been linked together in loathsome and horrible communion. Percy Bysshe Shelley
Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship ...
For what is wedlock forced but a hell,
And age of discord and continual strife. William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixth V vii 55-56 & 62-63
Shame: Forced into marriage, rejected by those she loved – the true story of a girl’s struggle to survive. Jasvinder Sanghera
She [sister] suffered horrific violence in her marriage. She was told to go back and make the marriage work for the sake of the honour of the family [inaudible]. In the end my sister was twenty-four-years-old. She set herself on fire. Jasvinder Sanghera, presentation to police officers
At the moment we’re averaging in the region of four hundred calls a month. For me four hundred a month is just the tip of the iceberg. Jasvinder Sanghera, helpline
The practice of forced marriage is not condoned by the majority of communities in which it occurs. But when it does happen lives can be ruined and at times it can prove fatal. Over the past twelve months we were granted privileged access to the UK Government’s Forced Marriage Unit. The Forced Marriage Unit
The notions of honour that often drive forced marriage can be explosive. ibid.
73,419. Rescues can be unpredictable and dangerous. ibid.
The team deal with between sixteen and seventeen hundred reports of false marriages per year. ibid.
Zena has been on the run from her family for fifteen years, and is still on the witness protection programme. ibid.
So what exactly is the honour system that would drive a father to hunt down his own daughter to kill her? ibid.
Such emotions only make sense if you live in a social system rooted in strong notions of honour and shame. Most false marriages are motivated by honour. ibid.
Police on their way to a petrol station in Lancashire. Once there they discover a twenty-three-year-old woman in a car. She has been drugged and kidnapped. She’s broken a code that goes back hundreds of years built around what’s seen as a sacred trust – the family honour. There are thousands of young people like her in Britain today who live in fear of their own families. But very few are prepared to talk about it. This film two years in the making tells one shocking story. Kidnapped and Drugged for Family Honour, BBC 2012
Lancashire police have two units dedicated to tackling so-called honour crime, including forced marriages, forced imprisonment and assaults ... More than sixty cases in the last twelve months. ibid.
Shabana ran away from her mother’s home where she lived rather than going through a forced marriage to a cousin. She went to another city and met and fell in love with a young Muslim man there. ibid.
Detectives questioning her, suspect she may have been drugged or poisoned. ibid.
Forcing marriage on someone who lacks mental capacity is a ‘gross interference’ with their dignity and autonomy, particularly as it means having sex and possibly becoming pregnant without being able to consent. Mrs Justice Parker
Take immediate action to prevent the abduction, forced conversion to Islam and forced marriage of young women from minority religious communities and to bring to justice all those who engage or have engaged in these heinous crimes. World Council of Churches central committee, September 2012
It is a disgrace that forced marriage is only a matter for civil law. Sayeeda Warsi
‘Sonita! Sonita! Sonita! Storyville: Brides for Sale – Sonita, Sonita raps down with the kids, BBC 2016
How much did they offer as a bridge price? — $3,000. But my dad wants more money. ibid. girl to girl
Girl #1: ‘And worse, he already has a wife and kids.’
Girl #2: ‘You’re lucky; at least they asked you.’
Girl #3: ‘Did you agree nor did they beat you?
Girl #1: ‘At first, they beat me up. Then I agreed. ibid.
‘Can’t you see that I’m just a teen? But he doesn’t answer, just leaves me there.’ ibid. Sonitarap lyrics
Around 400 children, mainly girls from south Asian communities, are forced into marriage during school holidays every year in the UK. We’ve heard that many of these children disappear from school registers. We explore claims that the number of missing schoolgirls forced into marriage is actually in its thousands, and that teachers and other professionals are turning a blind eye for fear of corrupting community cohesion. We’ve also found that some religious leaders are agreeing to perform underage marriages here in the UK. Exposure: Forced to Marry, ITV 2013
The Forced Marriage Unit deals with over 1,000 cases a year over 65 countries. Inside the Foreign Office III: Brits in Trouble, Sir Simon McDonald, BBC 2018
An ancient code – death before dishonour. Their daughter Shafilea refused to enter into an arranged marriage so she had to die. They acted the part of grief-stricken parents. It took eight years: the Dishonourable Killers. Evil Up Close: The Dishonorable Killers, Crime Channel 2013
It’s a hunt that ends in a violent capture. It takes place in a world that has no physical form. Sometimes it’s a bond between not two but three. And it can turn into a licence to kill. Strange Rituals s1e10: Till Death Us Do Part, H2 2016
‘The mid-1980s there suddenly seemed to be a spate of women, young brides, dying of burns. The term dowry death was given to them.’ ibid.
Kyrgyzstan: bride capture – it’s an old tradition that has made a comeback; ever since Kyrgyzstan won its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 young boys have struggled to claim their manhood in one definitive and sometimes violent act: abducting a girl honours the nomadic traditions of Kyrgyzstan’s ancient past. ibid.
How common is this in the United States? How frequently are we marrying off little girls to men? I Was a Child Bride, Elizabeth Vargas reporting, CI 2019
Between 2000-2010 an estimated 248,000 child marriages in the United States. ibid. caption
‘I was forced to marry my rapist at 11.’ ibid. victim