Lancashire Police obtained its first ever Forced Marriage Protection Order against the unnamed woman’s father. The woman approached police after her father informed her in a “bolt out of the blue” that she was to be married last month.
She became engaged to a relative of her father’s three years ago during a trip to Pakistan. A Lancashire Police spokeswoman said: “She went on a family holiday and was betrothed but didn’t think anything would come of it and she went through with the ceremony.
“It was put to her that at the end of the month ‘you are going to Pakistan to get married’. ”It came as a bolt out of the blue that all of a sudden she would have to go to Pakistan.”
The woman approached police and officers applied for an order on her behalf. On Thursday, a judge at Blackburn County Court granted the order against her father. If he breaks the terms of the order he faces immediate arrest.
Independent Minds (Thanks Lotte)
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Ah, something similar in our newspaper tomorrow, but more about whether there should come laws regarding this, for protection. Right now it is so that the law will not do anything if forced marriage is normal in the country those people origin from. I feel that when you’re living in another country you will have to live by their standards as well. Forced marriage is really not something I will see as normal, when it is really forced that is (some youngsters follow the same rules but do have choices regarding which partner and such .. with limits .. male and female). Some of these forced marriages sound more as if about cattle than about daughters. Profit, honour etc. for the family. Apparently some of those daughters sometimes get kidnapped or killed if they refuse to go ahead with the marriage.
Neantherthalers (although they probably were more human).
Nice picture. But why is Jonathan Ross dragging that poor woman?
I have never understood this religious arrangement of marriage. If the person(s) doesn’t want to marry then it seems to me a fineline between prearranged marriage and human trafficking!
Well done that girl for standing up and protesting against her Father!
One of my sister’s best friends went though an arranged marriage in her early 20s with a guy brought over to the UK from her parents home town in India. It was a disaster and she ended up on her own with a small baby after a couple of years. Now, a few years later, her parents are working on her to go through another arranged marriage. Her sister stood up to their parents, married a guy of her own choice and a decade later they are still together.
I dont believe in arranged marriages, its old fashioned and wrong- it really should be made illegal.
I don\’t know — I\’m obviously against arranged marriages if either partner disagrees with the arrangement, but otherwise, it seems no different than using a matchmaker or one of those websites that link people together.
I knew a (Turkish) girl at my previous university, a classmate of mine, who was happily married to a guy that her family had picked for her. They only met a few times before they married, but they had extensive e-mail contact, and she genuinely fell in love with him. She said she wouldn\’t have gone through with it otherwise.
So as long as people are free to say no to the arrangement, I\’m not against arranged marriages as a whole.
(I do think marriage is a ridiculously outdated concept, but to each their own…)
Berber Anna – I think that’s kind of the point of an arranged marriage… refusal is not an option. It’s a hair’s breadth from the traditional shotgun wedding. Otherwise it wouldn’t be an arranged marriage, it would be matchmaking.
Ha ha, how wonderful. It surely points out the fact that it’s rather difficult getting married to someone you don’t really know. But it saying that, arranged marriages tend to be more successful then chosen marriages. Usually due to the fact that two people entering an arranged marriage do so in order to uphold a custom and do so out of respect and then usually fall in love with each other later. But in saying that I still find it really ridiculous. I think Sara’s right. Some old cultural customs have served their purpose.
I just finished reading the latest Romanian news article from Telegraph.co.UK. The article outlines a story of a four year old and a six year old who got engaged this month. YES, you read the last sentence correctly… Four and six years old getting engaged….. The story continues to tell that Roma girls are required to quit school in the fourth grade (What are they afraid of….. the teachings of common sense or better yet, human rights). It is stories like this one that outrages me and drives me to continue to fight for the rights of children around the world. http://www.blindfocus.org
i was brainwashed into marrying someone. I got married at the age of 16. i was a pretty dumb kid who agreed with everything my parent said, they would fill me with hell storys about disobaying ur parents or making them cry i would be sent to hell. So for years of forced sex n beating i had to be kept quiet because if i spoke out it wil be disgrace to your parents. No one could understand me because i was born deaf and with speach difficulty. And guess what im more mature now and also 30 i wished i had help way early TOO LATE NOW.