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How the law stands firm to end ordeal of forced marriage
AT the end of last year, Dr Humayra Abedin was released and allowed to travel back to her home and job in a London hospital, after a four-month ordeal in which she was allegedly duped into travelling to Bangladesh and then beaten, drugged and held against her will until she submitted to marrying a stranger.
The 33-year-old trainee GP, who had come to Britain in 2002 to take a masters in public health at Leeds University, was from a Muslim family but had a Hindu boyfriend – which reportedly angered her parents. The alarm was raised after she managed to text a friend saying her life was
in danger.
She was released after the High Court issued an injunction under the 2008 Forced Marriage Act demanding she be freed and allowed to travel.
Humayra Abedin could escape thanks to concerted efforts by lawyers in London and Dhaka and the non-governmental organisation ASK. It's thought that hundreds of other victims of forced marriage simply endure their fate each year.
Nobody knows precisely, but research suggests there could be as many as 8,000 cases of forced marriage a year in England, involving African, European and Middle-Eastern victims as well as those from South Asia. About 86 per cent of them involve young women and 14 per cent are under 16.
In the first nine months of 2008, the Government's Forced Marriage Unit was contacted by 1,308 concerned callers who feared they or someone close to them might be at risk.
For years, MPs including Keighley's Ann Cryer had dared to speak the two words which made them unpopular with some of their Asian constituents. In all, it took a decade of campaigning for legislation which would provide victims of forced marriage with proper legal redress.
The Forced Marriage Act came into force almost a year ago, and as Ann Cryer says in the foreword to an important new book on the workings and practical application of the Act, "(its) influence will, of course, also depend on victims and potential victims knowing about it...".
Information is everything, says Bradford-based solicitor Razia Jogi, who has co-written Forced Marriage – A Special Bulletin with Leeds-based barristers Clive Heaton QC and Louise McCallum. It is the first authoritative text on the Act. While the book is aimed at anyone who may be involved in helping those at risk or already threatened with forced marriage – whether in the legal profession, social work or support groups – Razia Jogi believes there is a huge education job to be done.
A specialist in cases of domestic abuse, and a fluent speaker of Urdu and Gujerati, Ms Jogi says she is "perplexed" that in the year since the Act, only one application has been made concerning a person threatened with forced marriage in Bradford.
The Act works in two ways, with the potential victim able to apply to the court themselves for an injunction to stop any marriage, or another party including a friend, relative, local authority or support group making the application if they believe a person is in danger. Those breaching any injunction can be sent to prison for two years.
The other aspect is recovery of a victim if they have been forcibly taken to another place with the intention of being married against their will.
"It's known that forced marriage happens, but no-one talks about it," says Ms Jogi. "And we know from 2009 figures so far, that 70 per cent
of the calls to the Forced Marriage Unit concern cases where the marriage is taking place in Pakistan.
Another 11 per cent are in Bangladesh and the rest are in India or the Middle-East. Given the size of the Pakistani community in Bradford, it is puzzling why there have not been more applications.
"Matters of marriage are very sensitive from a cultural point of view. In fact, it is the be-all and end-all to have your child married and settled... But, for example, sometimes a forced marriage is used to 'fix' a situation, where a young person is perhaps behaving in a western way that is not seen as acceptable – maybe a girl talking to boys. Sons who have been seen to go off the rails can also be taken away and married quickly. It can be arranged and done within a few days."
Razia Jogi feels it's important that there should be a programme of education about forced marriage for children aged 11 upwards. Girls as young as 14 have been known to disappear from schools and not return.
"Young people need to know that forced marriage is never right, and that they can be helped by the law. Getting the message across through schools seems the logical way."
Ms Jogi, who is an associate at Switalskis, agrees that awful though the prospect of forced marriage may be, the alternative of more or less "divorcing" your family and being estranged after legal proceedings is also very difficult to contemplate. That's why she sees her job as involving a certain moral obligation to offer clients indefinite after-care.
"Once you gain an injunction, it should never just be a case of (us saying) 'off you go now'. It's not so much the lawyer in me, but the Asian woman, who says to a victim 'I will always be here for you.'"
n Forced Marriage – A Special Bulletin is published by Jordan Publishing, 35.
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