SAN-Feature Service
SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE
January 5,2008
FORCED MARRIAGE :New power to stop forced marriage
By Homayra Parveen Shukla
The idea behind this whole plan is to help those young victims who are too young, too frightened,to helpless to go to court to stop their families from marrying them out.
SAN-Feature Service : The British Government has revealed that womens rights organisations, teachers, local council and social workers may be given power to stop forced marriages. This is under a British goverments new scheme that will come into force at the end of this year. Earlier Parliament passed the Forced Marriage Act at early 2007.
Concern Ministers are planning letting third parties get involved in coercive relationships where victims are too scared or too helpless to act. Because this type of incident is quite normal when young girls scared to do anything against their parents or their families.
Sources say, the British Government's Forced Marriage Unit receives about 5,000 calls for advice annually. Of these about 300 become cases,including about 70 overseas rescue operations. Figures show that 65% of the cases they deal with involve Pakistani families and 25% cases the deal with where Bangladeshi families involve. That means 90 per cent are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origins. Governments reports says Eighty-five per cent of the victims of forced marriages are women, most are aged 15-24, 90 per cent are Muslim .
The idea behind this whole plan is to help those young victims who are too young, too frightened,to helpless to go to court to stop their families from marrying them out. What government is also trying to do is to create awareness, because forced marriage is not arranged marriage. Arranged marriages which are freely-agreed matches, facilitated by families.
Bridget Prentice,British Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, said: "The aim of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 (the Act) is to offer protection to those faced with forced marriage, whether they are children, teenagers or adults, regardless of background, gender, race or religion.
The Act gives the courts a wide discretion to deal flexibly and sensitively with the circumstances of each individual case, employing civil remedies that will offer protection to victims without criminalising members of their family".
Britains Womens and social organisations are saying that,this is an issue about violence against women - an attempt to control their lives, based on families honour and culture. Thus this should be treated with great care.
In a discussion on the new powers, justice minister Bridget Prentice said, "It is important that the Act is implemented in a way that victims can be empowered to obtain orders from the courts in whatever circumstances they find themselves. Not all victims will be able to make an application personally to the court and where this occurs we need to ensure that another person or organisation may do so on their behalf ."
The forced marriage protection order will come into force later this year and this expects to give the Britain's civil courts much stronger powers. Under the law Courts will be able to prohibit family members from coercing someone into a marriage. Anyone who breaks the order would face imprisonment.—SAN-Feature Service
Homayra Parveen Shukla is a free lance journalist now based in London .E-mail: hpshukla@gmail.com
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