FORCED marriage is one of the biggest challenges facing Islamic cultures, a leading expert on the Muslim world has said.
Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh, believes that those forced to wed against their will should be given the same protections as the victims of people trafficking.
The academic spoke out following the conviction of a woman who duped her teenage daughter into going to Pakistan and forced her to marry a 34-year-old.
She said that the case, in the first successful prosecution of its type, was likely the tip of the iceberg with "thousands" of forced marriages being reported to charities and helplines in the UK each year.
Invited to deliver Radio Four's 'Thought for the Day' segment, Prof Siddiqui said: "It seems to me that marriage remains one of the biggest cultural challenges within many Islamic and other Asian and South Asian cultures.
READ MORE: Government urged to rethink new forced marriage law
"While the virtues of arranged marriages are often extolled as a harmonious, consensual arrangement between families, forced marriages ignore consent and young people find themselves tricked or relenting to family pressures.
"Without mutual consent, there is no marriage, but how that consent is acquired or ignored can be the very root of the problem."
During the trial, the girl told the court of her objections to wedding preparations. But despite her protests, the couple were married in September 2016, just after she had celebrated her 18th birthday.
Jurors heard the complainant recall how she cried to her mother, who continued leading her by the arm to meet her husband-to-be, and then put on her ring.
Forced marriage is not listed as an indicator of modern slavery under the national referral mechanism drawn up by the Home Office, while there is no prosecuting guidance linking forced marriage and slavery crimes.
READ MORE: MSPs back move to make forced marriage illegal
Prof Siddiqui said that the issue of forced marriage exposed a tension at the heart of Islam, where cultural and family traditions collided with personal freedoms.
She said: "It seems that the Islamic tradition which recognises and celebrates the power of human desire and the sexual impulse, has nevertheless created communities which today are struggling with that other great need: Human freedom.
"Freedom can be a loaded word, especially when young men and women feel psychologically, emotionally and physically trapped by family and tradition.
"People end up living lives of deception, because they are too afraid to be open about what they themselves want. It's not easy to break such ties, but we should condemn such oppressive and violent practices which deny young people their desire to be, and be free."
Prof Siddiqui added: "There is no love when parental love turns into parental control. Forced marriages are only the symptom of a deeper cultural malaise amongst many families.
READ MORE: Stars fight forced marriage
"Concepts of honour and shame are exploited to their full and notions of chastity and modesty, almost exclusively linked to a growing gender segregation, have created their own problems.
"And while both young men and women can suffer the consequences of family control, it is very often women who have to carry the weight of tradition."
The Home Office said the government’s forced marriage unit provided support in almost 1,200 potential cases last year. Since its introduction in 2008, there have been more than 1,500 forced marriage protection orders issued.
A spokeswoman said: “The forced marriage conviction shows that these appalling crimes do not have to be a hidden crime and, with the courage of victims, perpetrators will be prosecuted.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel