Forced Marriage Survivors fear Cases will stay ‘Underground’

Forced marriage survivors fear cases will remain underground.

This is despite the minimum legal marriage age in England and Wales being increased from 16 to 18 in 2023.

The government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) provided support and advice to 302 cases in 2022, with nearly one-third affecting victims aged 17 or under.

After London, statistics show the West Midlands has England’s highest percentage of cases, with 17%.

The FMU said it advised on 337 cases in 2021, compared to 759 in 2020, although it stresses the data was not directly comparable.

However, campaigners said the true number of cases has been “under-reported”.

Karma Nirvana said its national honour-based abuse helpline was contacted 9,616 times in 2022-23.

The charity said it provided support to a total of 2,346 cases in the same period, including 417 people who were facing forced marriage.

Forced marriage was criminalised in 2014.

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act, which came into force on February 27, 2023, means it is now a criminal offence to arrange marriages for those aged 17 or below.

Rubie Marie was “raped every single day” after she was forced at the age of 15 to marry a man twice her age.

She said forced marriage in the UK was “a lot more hidden” despite the new law.

While Rubie said the new law was “amazing”, she said it would not deter parents who wanted to get their child married.

She said: “I don’t think that it’s easily going to be stopped.

“It’s going to push more and more underground.”

For Fozia Rashid, aged 16 at the time, she was told her grandparents in Pakistan were unwell and that she should “see them for one last time”.

She said: “I went to Pakistan and within two weeks, I was married.

“My grandparents were perfectly fine, they weren’t dying.”

After arriving in Kashmir, Fozia was held at gunpoint by her uncle and threatened into marrying her cousin.

Her parents did not know she was being forced and thought it was a real marriage.

But Fozia had been secretly told if she did not go ahead with the wedding, she and her parents would be killed.

She explained: “I went ahead with it, out of fear. The option for me was death or marriage.

“It wasn’t something I had wanted, it wasn’t something I had planned for, it wasn’t of my choice – I was a child.”

Fozia was told how to behave so her husband could obtain a visa to allow him to move to the UK.

“The person I was married to, he made it clear I was just a thing, I was just an object to him.

“I heard my uncle telling my aunt that actually now they’ve got the visa, there’s actually no need for me and they could just get rid of me and tell my parents that I ran away.”

In the UK, she told her parents the truth and they supported her plans for divorce.

However, the stress of the ordeal caused damage to her eyes.

“It caused so much pressure on the back of my eye from my brain, my eye erupted and I needed surgery, my eyes are now light sensitive.”

She supports the new law but believes a further increase to 21 could “change everything for all of us” because there was “not much difference” between 16 and 18.

Fozia told the BBC: “It’s coming up to 24 years ago when I was forced into marriage, and had the law been different at the time, that wouldn’t have happened to me.

“There are still plenty of Fozias out there that this will continue to happen to.”

What does the law say about child marriage?

• Since February 27, 2023, it has been a criminal offence to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.
• Previously, people could get married at 16 or 17, if they had parental consent.
• Those found guilty of arranging child marriages face sentences of up to seven years in prison.
• If an underaged marriage is arranged outside the UK, it can be prosecuted in England and Wales.
• The legislation also covers non-legally binding “traditional” ceremonies, such as the Islamic marriage of Nikkah.

Rubie stated: “This man that they got me married to was 30, and I was 15.”

Originally from Wales, Rubie Marie took a family holiday to Bangladesh where she was forced to marry a man she had never met.

During a meal, her father suddenly suggested that she should get married.

Rubie said: “He just casually, just so casually said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we got Rubie married?’.

“Everyone knew, apart from me, what was going to happen, and it was like, ‘I’ve got no choice Rubie, you’re just going to have to go with it’.

“I thought why is this all happening to me, I didn’t do anything.”

Shortly after the wedding, her husband wanted a child in a bid to find a route to get into the UK.

“The rape would happen continuously. I didn’t know that their plan was for me to get pregnant, up until eight weeks after the wedding day.”

Meanwhile, another family member secretly gave Rubie secretly gave her the contraceptive pill but the supply was found while she was away.

Rubie said: “I went into a zombie state, I was depressed… I was an empty shell.”

After getting pregnant, it was decided she should fly home after falling ill.

Back in Wales, Rubie took an overdose.

“I remember in my bedroom, I then just took loads of pills and I tried to kill myself.

“I just thought, ‘I’m damaged, no one will be able to connect with me, nobody will be able to understand me or even believe me’.”

But Rubie later escaped and with her daughter, she moved to the West Midlands.

She is now an ambassador for Oxford Against Cutting, visiting schools across the region to educate others on forced marriage and honour-based abuse.

On the law, Rubie wants to see more education and awareness in schools.

Dr Surwat Sohail, CEO of Roshni, said forced marriage cases were “much higher” than reported because “survivors don’t even realise they’ve been through a forced marriage”.

She said the age change was a “step in the right direction” but would not solve all issues.

Roshni was set up in 1979 and supports minority communities affected by domestic violence, forced marriage and honour-based abuse.

Dr Sohail added: “There is a lack of knowledge around what is a forced marriage, what is honour-based abuse – we need to equip our professionals, we need to ensure our young people and older people understand what is a forced marriage.

“Because, if you don’t know you’re a victim, how could you seek help?”