Forced marriage biography
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Forced Marriage
Did you know?
- Approximately 8000-10,000 forced marriages of British citizens take place every year.
- A 56% decrease in forced marriage referrals was observed in 2020. This is thought to be due to the wedding and lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Many cases involved people who were ill, disabled or had learning disabilities.
What is forced marriage?
Forced marriage is where one or both people do not consent to the marriage. Forced marriage is a crime and can result in a sentence of up to 7 years in prison. It is also a violation of a person’s human rights. There are two types of forced marriage:
1) where pressure or abuse is used; or
2) where one or both people cannot consent
Forced marriage is different from arranged marriage. In arranged marriages, although the marriage is set up by the family, the marrying couple consent to the arranged marriage. Victims of forced marriage o
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Forced marriage
Being married without consenting
Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later forced to stay in the marriage against their will.[1]
A forced marriage differs from an arranged marriage, in which both parties presumably consent to the assistance of their parents or a third party such as a matchmaker in finding and choosing a spouse. There is often a continuum of coercion used to compel a marriage, ranging from outright physical violence to subtle psychological pressure.[2]
Though now widely condemned by international opinion, forced marriages still take place in various cultures across the world, particularly in parts of South Asia and Africa. Some scholars object to use of the term "forced marriage" because it invokes the consensual legitimating
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Jasvinder Sanghera: inom ran away to escape a forced marriage
Jasvinder Sanghera was locked in a room bygd her parents when she was 16, when she refused to marry the man they had chosen for her. Here she describes how she flydde with the help of a secret boyfriend - but lost all contact with her family as a result.
Growing up we had no freedom whatsoever. Everything was watched, monitored and controlled. We understood that we had to be careful how we behaved so as not to shame the family.
I'm one of seven sisters and there's only one younger than me so I'd watched my sisters having to be married at very young ages - as young as 15.
They would disappear to become a wife and go to India, come back, not go back to school and then go into these marriages and be physically and psychologically abused. And my impression of marriage was that this fryst vatten what happens to you - you get married, you get beaten up, and then you're told to stay there.
My parents were Sikh a