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The particular case of Humayra Abedin portrays why forced marriages have increased so much in recent years. For many South Asian parents, there is a xenophobic and communal fear of their children choosing partners outside their nationality and religion.
Salaam writes: Humayra Abedin, a UK doctor, was tricked by her mother into returning to Bangladesh in August of this year with the goal of forcing her into marriage. Family members took her passport, held her captive, drugged her and placed her in a mental hospital. After the Bangladesh courts, an NGO and the British courts became involved, she was released and able to return to the UK in December 2008, six months after her ordeal began.
Hana Shams Ahmed writes at Alt Muslim:
Humayra is just one of many Bangladeshis who are forced into marriages against their will every year. The phenomenon occurs not just in Bangladesh, but throughout South Asian and some African diaspora communities in the UK and USA. According to the Independent, in the first nine months of this year, the UK Government's Forced Marriage Unit was contacted by 1,308 concerned callers fearing they or someone close to them might be forced into marriage. The unit directly helped 388 of these victims - nearly twice as many as in 2007. The new Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007, which came into force in November 2008 because of the high number of reported cases, offers protection to all residents of the UK.
Forced marriages are different from arranged marriages in that in an arranged marriage, the family will take the lead in arranging the match but couples have the choice as to whether or not to proceed. With forced marriages, there is no choice. As such, it is a form of domestic violence and an abuse of human rights. There is usually much emotional and physical violence and manipulation involved, where a person is sometimes forced to agree to the marriage in fear of his/her life. According to an article by Abedin's lawyer in Bangladesh, Sara Hossain, and Suzanne Turner, at least 1000 women are abducted every year from the UK by their families and taken to a foreign country in order to be forced into marriage. According to the UK government's Forced Marriage Unit 85 percent of victims of forced marriages are women and girls and 44 percent of the overseas cases dealt with by the government's Forced Marriage Unit involved minors.
The particular case of Humayra Abedin portrays why forced marriages have increased so much in recent years. For many South Asian parents, there is a xenophobic and communal fear of their children choosing partners outside their nationality and religion. In a bid to marry their children off within the same community, parents try to 'arrange' their marriages. Parents also try to marry their children off early, thinking it is easier to coerce and manipulate children until a certain age.
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While people can give the excuse of 'religion' or 'culture', the truth is that nothing supports parents forcing children to marry someone against their will. If the press and bloggers do not start paying more attention to these cases, then there will be many more Humayras. What is needed ultimately are proactive efforts to change regressive attitudes among Asian communities - both living in Asia and in Europe. The rationale of cultural relativism, or sensitivity to 'Western intervention' cannot be used to justify a continuation of these human rights abuses.
Story here. |
