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February 2, 2008

UK: Muslim Families Who Use Rape And Violence To Enforce "Honor"

The Sunday Times highlights one the many cases featured in a new report on "Honor Violence" in the Muslim community in Britain.

In the instance cited, a 15-year old girl from Pakistan was made to marry a man by telephone. The man was from Sheffield. She had been shown only a photograph of a younger, handsome man. She came to Britain in April 2007, to find that her "husband" was unemployed, had the mental age of a child aged five and unlike the picture shown to her, he appeared to be about 40.

The man's mother tried to get the girl to engage in prostitution. Men were invited to the family home to rape the girl. She fled, and went to the police. She now lives in a refuge.

The report from which the case comes is entitled: "Crimes of the Community: Honour-based violence in the UK". It is written by James Brandon and Salam Hafez, and is produced by the Centre for Social Cohesion. The report can be purchased as a book from Civitas, and a pdf document of the 169-page report can be downloaded here.

Abul Taher of the Sunday Times claims that, containing "over 80 interviews with women's groups, community activists and the victims of honour-based violence, Crimes of the Community is the most comprehensive study of honour-based violence ever conducted in the UK."

The cases highlighted in the report are disturbing.

The report suggests (page 9) that the insistence upon forced marriages and the culture of "honour" has created a situation where young women from Pakistani and Bangladeshi (Muslim) backgrounds are deprived of higher-level education. It cites data from a 2007 pdf report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Women aged 25 to 29 with a degree level qualification comprise 53.9% of all those of Indian origin, yet only 25.6% of Pakistani origin women have this level of qualification. Only 15.5% of women of Bangladeshi origin have attained degree-level qualifications, compared to the national average of 29.7%.

Some refuges for South Asian women claim that almost half of their clients have undergone forced marriage. Once in such a marriage, they can be forcibly raped. Parents can collude with this, fearing that unless the "wife" becomes pregnant, she will run away.

A girl called "Ayesha" of Pakistani origin, living in northern England said: "I was raped. I didn't want to have sex with him. He was the opposite of what I was. He was twice the size of me. And anyway they (parents) would not let me return until I got pregnant anyway. I didn't know him or meet him before and he was not related to me, he was just from the right caste."

My sister blames me because she's in this situation - she's three months' pregnant and has been married for four months. My dad won't bring her back until she's had the baby."

Often, forced marriages can lead to violence from in-laws. On page 23 of the report, a woman called "Rukshana" describes how she was forcibly married when she was 18. She was first physically assaulted in 2003, while she was four months' pregnant. The assailants were the women in her "husband's" family. The resentment against her stemmed from her not being the family's first choice of bride. They had wanted her groom to marry his cousin.

Rukshana received repeated attacks, always for trivial reasons. When her mother died, Rushana was not informed by her husband's family for months. When she was given multiple wounds, bruises and fractures, she decided to seek help. She went to her daughter's school, collected her child, and sought assistance.

The report also includes examples of honor abuse from Sikh and Orthodox Jewish families, but it is clear that the vast majority of cases highlighted involve Muslim girls of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin.

Honor killings derive directly from this culture of "honor". The report describes many of the routes where "honor" is forced upon young people, and perpetuated even into fourth generation Pakistani/Bangladeshi immigrants.

This may be the most comprehensive study so far, but more studies will need to be made, before this "hidden" problem is fully understood by Britain's legislators.

Some alarming conclusions are made. It is suggested that police officers from Asian backgrounds have informed families of the location of a daughter who has fled honor violence. Such situations are unacceptable.

Forced marriages can only exist in a culture which allows arranged marriages. Until these are recognized as alien to British culture, and a route whereby communities continue to import new migrants without full integration, honor violence will continue to thrive.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 2, 2008 7:23 PM

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