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Archive for the Forced Marriage Category

9 Year Old Yemeni Girl Forced to Marry 30 Year old Man

By Asma Marwan on November 19, 2012

A 10-year old Yemeni child identified as Nejood Ali claims her family forced her to marry a 30-year old man.

The girl who appeared in the Lebanese TV channel LBC confirmed that she got married ten months ago when she was nine.

She said: “My father forced her to marry a person.” She said she did not see her husband until the wedding day and that she was scared.

She said she tried to escape from her husband on the wedding night, but her husband’s family beat her and they forced her to do house work.

Nejood says that one of her aunts helped her to go to a court to ask for a divorce.

She confirmed that a taxi driver helped her and took her to court. When she arrived at court she was scared and waited till the court closed, when the judge, on his way home, found her waiting in front of his door.

She said she told the judge her story and he sympathised with her case. The judge took her home and looked after her with his wife. She stayed in his house for three days where he later took her to court and issued the divorce judgment.

Read the rest: 10-year-old Yemeni Girl Plead with Judge to End Forced Marriage

According to Islamic doctrine, Nejood’s marriage at nine is following the sunnah, Mohammed’s words and deeds.

This entry is filed under Child Abuse, Child Marriage, Forced Marriage, Yemen.

Forced Marriages in the U.S.

By Asma Marwan on November 8, 2012

A forced marriage occurs when an individual is forced, coerced, threatened, or tricked to marry without her informed consent.

In many cultures, it is customary for families to arrange meetings between their children in the hopes of fostering a voluntary relationship that will lead to a marriage. In such situations, while the initial meetings are arranged by the families and a marriage is encouraged, the ultimate decision regarding whether to marry remains with the couple and the choice to marry is strictly voluntary. In contrast, in a forced marriage, an individual is threatened and/or coerced by her family to enter into the marriage against her will and may suffer honor violence if she resists or refuses the marriage.

Does this happen in the United States?

Yes. Although this is generally treated as a private family matter that remains hidden from public view, there are numerous reports of girls being taken out of school in the United States in their early teenage years and returned to their parents’ home countries to be forcibly married. For example, in 2007, the New York Daily News reported that a number of girls were being forced to return to Pakistan to marry men chosen by their families. One woman recalled being tricked and drugged before being put on a plane to Pakistan and, once there, being forced at gunpoint to acquiesce to a marriage to a man chosen by her father.

The Tahirih Justice Center released survey results in September of 2011 that found as many as 3,000 known or suspected cases of forced marriage within immigrant communities in the United States in the two years preceding the survey. We believe the actual number of forced marriage cases in the United States to be much higher, as the survey was directed towards service providers and other professionals. Many more existing cases are likely hidden from the view of officials.

The United Kingdom has set up a hotline specifically to handle cases of forced marriage. In 2010, there were 1,735 cases of forced marriage reported to the hotline. Of those victims, 131 were British citizens who were rescued after having been taken to Pakistan for marriage against their will.

Read the rest: Forced Marriage

This entry is filed under Forced Marriage, Great Britain, Pakistan. | 1 Comment

Syrian Women: a Commodity for Arab Men?

By Asma Marwan on September 6, 2012

It began with rumors of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in Jordan and has spread across the Arab world. Syrian refugees, particularly those of the young and female variety, are becoming a commodity for Arab men, with many offering to marry those in need.

But don’t be fooled: this is not a purely altruistic gesture. Syrian women are known as the beauties of the region and having run away from the massacres of their own country they are left vulnerable and needy. Men who would otherwise have no chance with these highly sought after ladies have been opportunistically taking their chances.

Now the backlash has begun and Syrian activists have launched a campaign on social media networks calling for the marriage proposals to come to a halt. The campaign, established by Syrian activist Miznah Duraid, under the name ‘Refugee Captives’, aims to educate Syrian parents to stop them marrying off their daughters for the sake of a stable home.

Left in terrible financial circumstances, these refugees are also more likely to agree to a disagreeable marriage in exchange for a ‘bride price’ paid by the groom to the family. Duraid says he is not only blaming the Syrians for the situation and is also trying to educate Arab men about “the pitfalls of marrying a Syrian woman”.
[ . . . ]
“It is also not guaranteed that the husband won’t repeat his ”helpfulness” by seeking marriage from another female refugee.”

Others have pointed out that no other refugee crisis in the Arab world has had this effect on the Middle East’s men. Moayad Eskeef is another Syrian campaigner keen to highlight the issue. Tongue-in-cheek he pointed out – if these men are so keen to marry a refugee why aren’t there a deluge of Sudanese-Arab marriages.

Read the rest: Women in Syria Who Are Refugees Sought by Arab Men. (h/t to the The Religion of Peace blog)

This entry is filed under Forced Marriage, Syria.

What Happens to Mentally Challenged Women in Islam

By Asma Marwan on August 23, 2012

A judge has said the forced marriage of a Muslim woman with learning difficulties should be annulled and condemned the “insulated” families who arrange them.
Mrs Justice Parker also criticised doctors and social workers for failing to raise the alarm when the woman was sent to Bangladesh to be married to a cousin, which allowed him to settle in England.

She said video of the wedding ceremony showed the bride was “almost comatose” and needed help to repeat vows she did not understand, while her relatives had made “false and misleading” statements about her condition.

And the judge brushed aside claims by the woman’s parents that having her marriage annulled would bring shame upon their family, in a case that was even considered at by the Government’s most senior lawyer, the Attorney General.

Mrs Justice Parker said that forcing marriage on someone who lacks mental capacity is a “gross interference” with their dignity and autonomy, particularly as it means having sex and possibly becoming pregnant without being able to consent.

Read the rest here. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9480374/Judge-attacks-forced-marriage-that-put-disabled-woman-at-risk.html

This entry is filed under Forced Marriage.

U.S. Ignores the Plight of Christian Women in Egypt

By Asma Marwan on August 15, 2012

Nadia Ghaly’s cousin disappeared 40 years ago. She was introduced to a Muslim man as a young woman, subsequently vanished and resurfaced later three months pregnant wearing a hijab. She was the victim of a forced marriage. She is not alone. Coptic Christian women are routinely victimized and forcibly converted by Muslims in Egypt, Miss Ghaly says.

In its annual Religious Freedom Report, released July 30, the U.S. State Department acknowledged the problem, but at the same time appeared to downplay it. The report described forcible conversions as “disputed,” asserting that while there were “occasional claims” of Muslim men forcing Coptic women (and sometimes girls younger than legal age) to convert to Islam, these accounts “often included inflammatory allegations and categorical denials of kidnapping and rape.”

Miss Ghaly has no faith in the current U.S. administration. “I feel that politically the United States will look after its own interests,” Miss Ghaly said. “I feel that they favor the Muslim Brotherhood and [Egyptian President Mohammed] Morsi more than the human rights of the Copts.”

Continue reading U.S. Ignores the Plight of Christian Women in Egypt

This entry is filed under Child Marriage, Christian Oppression, Egypt, Forced Marriage.

Afghan Woman Hangs Herself Over Arranged Marriage

By Asma Marwan on June 7, 2012

A 22-year-old girl hanged herself to death after her family engaged her to a person in an exchange marriage in the Lal Sarjangal district of western Ghor province on Wednesday, an official said.

The girl identified as Ruqia killed herself at home at around 10am, a month before her marriage was fixed, the district crime branch police chief, Ma. Nazir Hussain, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

A police party had been sent to the area for investigating the incident, he said, adding Ruqia was the third girl committing suicide over the past one month.

“The girl was going to be married to a person whose sister had wed her brother. The marriage was being arranged against the victim’s will,” he said.
Read the rest: Girl in Afghanistan Hangs Self To Avoid Arranged Message.

This entry is filed under Afghanistan, Forced Marriage.

ACTION ALERTS: Help Muslim Women!

By Asma Marwan on May 9, 2012

Please take action on these two issues:

Lowering of the Age for Marriage in Egypt.

Equality Now issued an urgent alert today calling on Egyptian authorities to stop the minimum age of marriage from being reduced to as low as 9 years old for girls. If adopted, girls could be married off by their families without their consent putting them at risk of physical and psychological harm.

Go here to take call for a stop to Islamic efforts to lower marriage age of Egyptian girls.

Getting rid of Hatem Al Haj, the pediatric pervert doctor who thinks that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is honorable for a little girl.

Hatem Elhagaly (AKA “Hatem Al Haj”) works as a doctor with special interest in child development in Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Albert Lea, MN. He is also a proponent of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
In an Arabic-language paper entitled “Circumcision of Girls: Jurisprudence and Medicine” (original here and here), Elhagaly (AKA “Al Haj”) repeatedly points to the idea that FGM is “an honor” for women, ignoring FGM’s extremely detrimental effects on women’s health and the barbarity of the practice. He attempts to justify his ideas by referencing scholars from several schools of Islamic thought and also the words of Muhammad, including the idea that FGM is desirable “because it is more beautiful to behold and better for her husband.” (for more info on Dr. Hatem, see previous article: Islamic Doctor Says Female Genital Mutilation is an Honor.)

Go here to call for the firing of Dr. Hatem El-Hagaly.

This entry is filed under Children's Rights, Egypt, Female Genital Mutilation, Forced Marriage, United States.

Moroccans Don’t Want Sharia Law Allowing Marriage of Minor Girls

By Asma Marwan on May 5, 2012

The widespread practice of marrying minors continues to be one of the most incendiary legal and political issues in Morocco today, causing open confrontations between hard-line Islamists and moderates throughout the country.
[ . . . ]

A campaign to gather one million signatures to forbid the marriage of minors is already in progress, sparked by the death of Amina Filali, a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist.
[ . . . ]

Activists, rights groups and members of the opposition have been clamouring for the abolition of article 475 of the penal code, which allows rapists to get off scotfree if they agree to marry their victims; as well as articles 20 and 21 of the family code, which allows the marriage of minor girls.

But the root of the problem runs deep, and will require more systemic change than the abolition of one or two laws

“The culprit is archaic jurisprudence implemented by ignoramuses,” Chakib Khettou, a citizen of Casablanca, told IPS, referring to the Muslim law allowing the marriage of girls older than nine years, according to traditional law.
Continue reading Moroccans Don’t Want Sharia Law Allowing Marriage of Minor Girls

This entry is filed under Child Marriage, Forced Marriage, Morocco, Rape and Abuse.

Pakistani Muslims Kidnap Hindu Teenagers to Marry

By Asma Marwan on April 24, 2012

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Hindus in Pakistan accuse Muslims of kidnapping teens as wives.
The girls are forced to convert to Islam, rights groups say. In court, a few wives have chosen to stay with their husbands, but families say they were coerced.
[ . . . ]
In a country where Hindu-dominated India is widely reviled as Enemy No. 1, Pakistan’s Hindu community endures extortion, disenfranchisement and other forms of discrimination.

These days, however, Hindus are fixated on a surge of kidnappings of teenage girls by young Muslim men who force them to convert and wed. Pakistani human rights activists report as many as 25 cases a month.

Read the rest here. (h/t to Grendel)

Now why would the religion of peace revile the Hindus and discriminate against them?

This entry is filed under Forced Marriage, Pakistan.

400 Women in Afghanistan Held for ‘Moral Crimes’

By Asma Marwan on March 28, 2012

(like running away from domestic violence or forced marriage)

Human Rights Watch Reports on the Imprisonment of Women and Girls for “Moral Crimes” in Afghanistan

This 120-page report is based on 58 interviews conducted in three prisons and three juvenile detention facilities with women and girls accused of “moral crimes.”

Almost all girls in juvenile detention in Afghanistan had been arrested for “moral crimes,” while about half of women in Afghan prisons were arrested on these charges. These “crimes” usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. Some women and girls have been convicted of zina, sex outside of marriage, after being raped or forced into prostitution.

Continue reading 400 Women in Afghanistan Held for ‘Moral Crimes’

This entry is filed under Afghanistan, Forced Marriage, Sexuality, Sharia.

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