Agony of the British girls being forced illegally into marriage — because the authorities are terrified of causing offence
With 3,000 cases reported but just THREE convictions . . .
ON THE outskirts of a remote village in Bangladesh, an 18-year-old girl runs for her life down a dusty track. Screaming with fear, she falls into the arms of a waiting police officer who immediately bundles her into a nearby car.
The teenager is so terrified that she wedges herself into the footwell, begging them to drive as fast as they can. Prepared for such an eventuality, the police have put in place roadblocks that successfully stop her pursuers in their tracks.
But from whom had she been fleeing? And why was she so scared? The answers will shock many in Britain.
Because, while her terrifying ordeal may have unfolded thousands of miles away, its roots are very much in this country.
The young woman was born and raised in Leeds. She had recently sat A-levels and was planning to go to university.
But, unknown to her, her parents had very different ideas. On the pretence of a family holiday, they travelled to Bangladesh, their home before moving to Britain. Once there, they announced that their daughter was to be married — to her first cousin.
When she refused, her mother swore at her and threatened violence. Her father told her that having brought her up for 18 years with love, he would ‘chop her up’ in 18 seconds if she disrespected him by not going through with the marriage.
But he had not counted on his daughter’s bravery, ingenuity and determination.
Alerting the British authorities to her plight and her location, she was able to make her dramatic escape.
Returning home to the UK, her parents were arrested, charged and, last week, found guilty of forced marriage by a jury at Leeds Crown Court. The pair, who cannot be named to protect their daughter’s anonymity, will be sentenced later this month.
By coincidence, the same week the mother of another teenage girl was jailed for the same offence at Birmingham Crown Court, marking the first conviction for forced marriage in England since it was made a criminal offence in 2014.
The 18-year-old girl who escaped marriage in Bangladesh was only the second case, and while this is undoubtedly welcome, the two convictions barely scratch the surface of the problem.
Campaigners — including charity Karma Nirvana which helps victims of honour-based abuse and forced marriage — warn that with the summer holidays just around the corner, thousands could be taken abroad and forced into marriages against their will.
SO GREAT is the danger, that young girls who fear they are at risk are even being advised to hide a metal spoon in their underwear to trigger airport scanners, giving them the chance to alert security personnel before they are taken out of the country.
A last resort. And one, it is claimed, that is only necessary because teachers, doctors, social workers and police are so fearful of being branded racist that they shy away from earlier interventions.
One who did not shy away was Detective Sergeant Pal Singh, who risked the wrath of his Metropolitan Police bosses by accusing the Crown Prosecution Service of dropping ‘honour crime’ cases for fear of causing unrest in Asian communities.
After DS Singh spoke out, Tory MP Nusrat Ghani said she had seen ‘too many women’ not get the support they are entitled to because the violence meted out to them is explained away as ‘cultural difference’.
She said: ‘I’ve spoken to police officers who have seen these cases not dealt with as they would in other circumstances because the term brings in so much other baggage. But it is just domestic violence.’
And Louise Casey — who led an investigation into social services in Rotherham where Asian sex gangs had abused as many as 1,600 children — told a Policy Exchange thinktank in London in 2016: ‘We let forced marriage happen because we were so wrapped up in political correctness and wanting our multicultural Britain. We forgot to talk about equality and we forgot to talk about equal rights.’
‘When is Britain going to wake up to this?’ asks Jasvinder Sanghera, chief executive and founder of the Karma Nirvana charity.
‘Families may try to disguise it as being part of their religion, tradition or culture but that is not the case.
‘A forced marriage by definition ends in rape. Those professionals who fail to act so as not to cause offence or rock the cultural boat form part of the problem and only give strength to the perpetrators.
‘The professional is worried about causing offence, being called a racist and therefore looks at it differently and not for what it is, which is child abuse.’
Forced marriage is described by the Home Office as one in which one or both spouses do not consent to the marriage and where violence, threats, or any other form of coercion is involved. Coercion may include emotional force, physical force or financial pressure.
It differs from an arranged marriage in which the family may have chosen a partner but where both parties have consented to the union and can still refuse to marry if they choose.
Under the laws introduced in 2014, forcing someone to marry is a criminal offence, carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.
But securing convictions has proved extremely hard. Victims are often young and understandably fearful of the consequences of going to the authorities.
As the two recent cases demonstrate, a successful prosecution is likely to involve them giving evidence against family members, which could ultimately see them jailed.
The pitifully low conviction rate should not conceal the scale of the problem. According to a recent Freedom of Information request, more than 3,500 reports of forced marriage were made to police between 2014 and 2016.
Over the same three-year period, the Karma Nirvana helpline received 22,000 calls from individuals or agencies concerned about the issue.
In 2017 this included more than 200 from or about children under 15. The charity also gave advice regarding eight new clients under ten.
Meanwhile, the government’s own Forced Marriage Unit was contacted about 1,196 cases in 2017. Of these roughly 30 per cent involved victims below the age of 18.
THE largest number related to London, followed by the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber. Three-quarters related to women. Since it was established in 2005, the FMU has handled cases connected to more than 90 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America.
In 2017, the countries with the highest proportion of cases were Pakistan, 37 per cent, Bangladesh, 11 per cent, followed by Somalia and India.
With criminal prosecutions rare, preventative action can be taken through the civil courts. Since 2008 more than 1,500 Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been granted. These can be sought by the local authority, police or individuals.
A judge can attach any conditions believed necessary to prevent a forced marriage, including requiring passports to be handed over. A breach of the order is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years behind bars.
But still the concern is that the authorities are too slow to react — and that one of the main stumbling blocks is political correctness.
‘We had a police officer call our helpline — they often ring for advice,’ recalls Ms Sanghera. ‘He said: “I have been told to call you guys because you deal with the cultural things, don’t you? I have got an issue and just wanted to check I am doing the right thing because I don’t want to offend anyone here. I have a 26-year-old man from a minority group in a full-blown relationship with a 12-year-old girl. He says it is acceptable in his culture and I just want to check with you”.
‘The call handler told him to forget the cultural issues and just tell her what he saw — which was a raft of possible offences, including rape.’
It is a point echoed by Sunny Angel, who was forced to marry a man by her Indian parents when she was 20.
‘They kept saying it was an arranged marriage but it wasn’t — they were pushing me into it,’ recalls Sunny, now 39, who has changed her name to protect her family’s identity. ‘The man on the other side was forced into it as well because he had a mental disability and didn’t understand what was happening.’
Her parents believed it was her duty to marry, while his wanted him to marry so they could have grandchildren — specifically a grandson.
‘They forced him to rape me every night,’ she says. ‘The first night after he had raped me he rang his mum and said “Can I come home now?” When she said no he said: “Can I have the chocolate you promised me?” She said yes and told him he didn’t have to share it.’
After five months of abuse, Sunny went on hunger strike, forcing her parents to pick her up and take her home.
Estranged from her family, she has now written a book, Wings, about her experience in the hope it will help others and stop those who can help from turning a blind eye.
‘Nurses, doctors and teachers have to come forward and ask people they are worried about if they are OK. People don’t want to offend anyone because they are worried if they say the wrong thing they might be called racist.
‘We need to break those boundaries. Forced marriage is not a cultural practice. It’s a form of child abuse and modern slavery and should be investigated and prosecuted as such,’ she says.
Concerns about the inaction of the authorities were also raised during and after the case in Birmingham.
The court heard how the 17-year-old victim was flown to Pakistan by her mother under the pretence of a family holiday and, once there, forced to marry a cousin 16 years her senior who wanted a British passport. The girl’s mother threatened her with black magic if she spoke out.
‘I told my mum I didn’t want to get married and I was crying,’ the teenager told the court. ‘I didn’t want him to put [the ring] on my hand because I didn’t want to get married to him.’ It also
emerged during the hearing that her husband had previously raped and impregnated her as a 13-yearold on a previous trip to Pakistan. After having an abortion on her return, the girl went ‘off the rails’ and turned to drink and drugs.
As a result she was under the voluntary care of Birmingham Children’s Services when the mother revealed plans to take her daughter back to Pakistan in 2016. Despite social workers expressing concerns to superiors, the trip was allowed and the girl’s passport handed over to the mother.
The 45-year-old mother, who was found guilty of two counts of forced marriage, and one count of perjury, was jailed for four and a half years. Speaking afterwards the girl’s father branded his ex-wife ‘pure evil’ but also criticised the authorities for letting her go.
‘Why did social workers hand her passport over so easily?’ he said. ‘They knew about my daughter’s history, they knew how vulnerable she is. They knew what happened to her in 2013. How could they even consider her returning to the country in 2016?’
Penny Thompson, independent chair of the multi-agency Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board, said: ‘This is a sad and complex case and I’d like to commend all those who helped bring it to court, particularly the brave young victim who came forward. We will look at the best way of sharing any learning.’ As for the other case, that came to a happy conclusion thanks to the bravery of the victim — and a healthy dose of international co-operation.
Having realised what her parents’ plans were for her on arriving in Bangladesh in the summer of 2016, the teenager borrowed her sister’s phone and managed to send a number of increasingly desperate WhatsApp messages to her boyfriend back in Britain. One read: ‘Yesterday they said I was getting married and I was screaming and crying and just denying this was all true. Then they were constantly trying to persuade me. My mum kept saying to my dad “hit her, hit her”. And my dad kept coming closer and raising his hand to show he’s gonna slap me up.’
Another message was even more chilling: ‘He said he would rather go to jail with me dead because he still has a reputation rather than me not listening to his demands. Today he came into my room and swore at me saying if he saw one more tear he would strangle me and tear me apart with a knife.’
The victim’s boyfriend contacted police in Leeds who began an investigation and started liaising with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to ensure her safety.
AT THe same time, the victim searched online for help and contacted the British High Commission in Bangladesh who began setting up a rescue operation.
They were able to track her phone and were sent screenshots of the surroundings to help them pinpoint her exact location.
When her father left with the groom to try on wedding outfits, she took the opportunity to flee.
The victim, who left with nothing but the clothes she had on, her phone and a Leeds bus pass, was flown back to the UK the following day. Her parents were arrested days later when they arrived at Heathrow airport and her siblings were taken into care.
Praising her after the case, investigating officer Detective Superintendent Pat Twiggs said: ‘I think she has clearly recognised how important it is for her to stand up, not just for herself, but for other victims who will follow.
‘I know she wants her case to show other victims that they can come forward to the authorities with confidence that they will be listened to and safeguarded.’
A message which, with the summer holidays fast approaching, one can only hope proves to be true