IT HAS been reported this week that forced marriages are more widespread than had been previously thought. The Government concluded in 2006 that a new law against forced marriage was not necessary, and that the existing laws against kidnap, forced imprisonment, and rape afforded the victims enough protection. There is a tendency in the present Government to ignore a problem if it cannot make a law against it, but in this instance, legal sanction has proved a very inadequate approach. First, few victims will inform on their own parents; second, many of the marriages are international affairs, meaning that victims are almost impossible to trace; and, third, wives brought into this country and married against their will are frightened of being deported.
For this reason, it has been impossible to gauge the scale of the problem, although anecdotal evidence has been troubling. The 300 or so cases a year investigated by the Forced Marriage Unit is almost certain to be an underestimate. This week’s headline figure of 3000-4000 cases a year was arrived at by assuming that reporting runs at approximately the same level as the reporting of domestic violence, i.e. ten to 12 per cent of the total number of cases. Although it is little more than a guess, this higher figure is supported by the news that Luton-based support services were approached 300 times in the past year by people anxious about forced marriage. The most alarming report was that made last week by the Children’s Minister, Kevin Brennan. He told a Select Committee that 33 minority-ethnic pupils in Bradford had left school unaccountably in 2007 and had not been traced.
Commentators have been careful to distinguish between marriages that are forced on unwilling teenagers and those that are arranged amicably with the consent of all concerned, and it is certainly true that the latter can be successful. But there is growing unrest among young people with an Asian background at the prospect of an early marriage to someone who can remain a stranger until it is too late to draw back. Too many girls are forced to abandon their studies in order to conform to outdated customs. Too many boys are tied to a wife before they have learnt how to cherish someone properly. The track record of marriages in Western Europe is nothing to boast about, but at least they tend to start well, with an acceptance that the decision to marry is one for the couple alone, however much advice they might accept.
One of the anxieties about Dr Williams’s sharia lecture in February was that his support for a limited application of sharia principles might shore up the subjugation of women. He was adamant that it should not, but the supervision of matrimonial practices was mentioned. It is vital that greater care is taken over the fate of young women in ethnic-minority communities, and that community pressure is not allowed to trump the self-determination of a UK citizen. |
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