In our day and age it seems to be stating the obvious that you should only marry the one you love. But that's precisely the message at the heart of the latest government information campaign to tackle forced marriages. It's estimated around 1000 marriages a year take place without the consent of at least one of the future partners. The scale of the issue first came to light in South Asian communities in the 1990s. Some first generation migrants, intent on following the tradition of arranging their children’s future life partner, encountered resistance from their offspring raised in Britain. | "Home Office Minister Baroness Patricia Scotland likened forced marriage to a form of human rights abuse akin to domestic violence or child abuse." | | Kurt Barling |
Young woman and men were literally abducted or put under heavy emotional pressure to conform to parental wishes and shipped off to the sub-continent for enforced nuptials. These parents often cited cultural or religious tradition and the British state dared not contradict the perceived view from the minority communities for fear of being labelled racist or interfering. It shows how far Britain has come in the past five years that the "You Have a Right to Choose" campaign is part of an open and robust debate challenging such parental ignorance. It's taken a good ten years for Fozzia Latif to be comfortable talking about her traumatic experience. She now lives in Wembley with her daughter, far from her Yorkshire roots. When she reached twenty her parents switched into suitor finding mode. She stubbornly refused all the potential suitors her parents had selected. Her mother became so exasperated by Fozzia's wilfulness that she arranged to take Fozzia off to Pakistan. There, without Fozzia's knowledge (or suspicion), a wedding had been arranged and she was to be the bride. Rescue In some ways Fozzia considers herself lucky. Her partner wasn't violent or unkind just, in her view, unsuitable. She says she tried to make the relationship work. Eventually she returned to Britain with her new husband. She fell pregnant but after the birth of her first child she concluded the marriage was doomed. Her husband had made it clear that once he'd passed the required year of marriage enabling him to stay in the UK, he too would not stay in a loveless union. Visa regulations have since been reformed to make it more difficult for divorcees to stay in the UK. The Foreign Office has in recent years dealt with far more serious cases than Fozzia's. These have involved abduction, beatings and rape. The Forced Migration Unit (FMU) was set up in 2005 to tackle the problem by protecting British citizens who find they are living under threat in a place far from home. In the past five years its estimated 1250 people have been helped in some shape or form. In the sub-continent this has meant in extreme cases sending a specialised team to "rescue" individuals who've made it known they are being kept in remote villages against their will. The reality of forced marriages spreads well beyond these communities though. In some parts of West and Central Africa, the Middle East and now some countries of Southern Europe more cases are coming to light where women and men raised in Britain are being forced into marriages that they don't want. Around 15% of those children forced to marry become the grooms. Impact At a launch of government funded advertisements targeting the most vulnerable communities Home Office Minister Baroness Patricia Scotland didn't mince her words. She likened forced marriage to a form of human rights abuse akin to domestic violence or child abuse. The firm line is that there is no religious or cultural excuse that can be used to legitimise the practice. A consultation exercise is due to report within the next few weeks on whether a change in the law is needed to make it a criminal offence to force a British citizen to marry against their will. The general opinion at the moment seems to be that there are enough laws to deal with the any offences committed in the UK leading to forced matrimony. It’s difficult to see many children wanting to go to court as witnesses against relatives other than in the most extreme of cases. The real issue remains that in some places overseas where UK citizens end up feeling isolated and desperate, matters of honour are still dealt with ruthlessly by local family justice. The only way the British government can have an impact in these circumstances is by cooperation with local law enforcement. Narina and her sister had been taken to Pakistan on a family holiday but then both were kept virtual prisoners in the home of relatives. The family had planned to find husbands for both teenagers. The two girls were helped by consular officials to return to Britain where they both ended up in a women's refuge. Cases like these show this approach has had some limited success. Funds
 | | Forced Marriage campaign poster |
A more realistic concern here in London, comes from the very agencies that wanted a robust government response to the problem in the first place. The Southall Black Sisters project worries that the latest information campaign will raise demand for their services but with no additional resources at grassroots level, they will not be able to respond with the right level of services. They believe whilst the problem has now been officially recognised, there are insufficient funds to tackle it effectively. As any one who's been through a traumatic divorce will recognise, extricating yourself from an unwanted partnership can take years to recover from. Fozzia believes that this is even tougher as a Muslim woman divorcee. She remains unmarried and largely estranged from her family. There is paradoxically a sense of guilt too that she let her family down. Victims like Fozzia hope that the campaign will help educate parents and families that the costs of forcing someone into a marriage can have disastrous consequences. Nevertheless in a sign of the times, the British state is now openly accepting responsibility for protecting the rights of those British citizens abused in this way. Perhaps a sign that political correctness is also becoming a victim of common sense. | 
