WUNRN
UK - NEW LAW AGAINST "CRUEL,
UNACCEPTABLE" FORCED MARRIAGE
Aisha, 12, takes part in a literacy class in Kabul. UK-based NGO 'Womankind' said 60 to 80 percent of marriages in Afghanistan were forced REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
LONDON
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Forced
marriage is cruel, unacceptable and will not be tolerated, Britain's interior
minister said on Monday, as new legislation banning the practice came into
effect.
Under the new
law, which covers
"Your wedding day should be the happiest day of your life,
when you can look forward to a new life with the person you love," Home Secretary Theresa May said in a blog.
"But for
victims of forced marriage, their wedding signals the end of their youth and
freedom. They are robbed of the right to choose their future and all too often
women will suffer physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse at the hands
of their new husband."
She said every
case of forced marriage was a "tragedy" and that the practice, which
campaigners say puts thousands of women at risk every year, must stop.
Last year, the government's forced marriage unit dealt with 1,302 cases.
Eighty-two percent of the victims were female and in 15 percent of the cases,
the victim was under the age of 15.
Cases involved
74 countries including
May said
individual stories were "heart-rending", citing the case of a
17-year-old girl who was duped into going to
Instead, the
teenager, who had been planning to go to university to study law, was married
off. Forced to slave away cooking and cleaning for her new husband, she was
only ever fed scraps and leftovers.
The young woman
suffered sexual, mental and physical abuse before gaining the courage to tell
her family what was happening to her and leaving her husband, May said.
"This is a
hidden crime, with victims often too afraid to speak out against the people who
are forcing them to sign their lives away," May said.
Many
campaigners who have lobbied for years to make forced marriage a criminal
offence welcomed the new law. However, others said victims would be reluctant
to testify against their parents and other family members.
"Criminalisation is a crucial deterrent," said Diana
Nammi, founder and executive director of the Iranian
and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO).
"Many of
our clients have told us that if forced marriage had been criminalised when
they were facing it, their families may not have gone ahead with it because they
would have abided by the law."
Nammi dismissed
fears that criminalisation would force the issue underground. She noted that
since Prime Minister David Cameron announced the intention to bring in the law
two years ago, reporting of forced marriage had almost doubled.
“The same
arguments were raised against criminalising marital rape but far from going
underground, reporting has increased four-fold," she said in a statement.