It has to be realised that ‘forced marriage, shame, honour’ are tantamount to slavery and attacks on human rights
UNITED KINGDOM: I am an Anglo-Pakistani campaigner that runs ‘It’s My Right — No Forced Marriages’, an organisation that tackles forced marriage in the UK. I’m writing to you with a very important letter that needs to be addressed.
As a society we fundamentally reject slavery, violence, abhorrent abuse and human trafficking. Forced marriage is all of these. It is a human rights violation that deprives lives of their rights and entraps them into slavery. The fundamental message that society needs to know is that, this is one of the greatest human rights causes of our time and it needs to be talked about and solved. It is all of our right to be educated, to define the course of our own life and choose who we marry.
Cynical attitudes and inaction are the biggest barriers still in place. A culture of fear and inaction only goes to further empower fear and strengthen those who carry out forced marriage and the so-called honour-based violence. This is a matter of ending a violation of human rights. There should be no child in our society that’s told they don’t have a future.
The prime area that must be tackled is in the continuing perception that forced marriage is untouchable because it is cultural. Society needs to realise what exactly is at stake. The girls and boys who are facing forced marriage are the future doctors, leaders, teachers of our society.
It has to be realised that ‘forced marriage, shame, honour’ have to be seen for what they all really are, it is slavery and terminology of further attacks on human rights. The prevailing barrier, ‘that we can’t act because it’s our culture’, only goes to give this heinous crime a strengthened voice. We all have a voice to end this. The challenge to empower change can’t be met alone; the responsibility of action to dismantle forced marriages and the protection of victims has to come from every part of our society.
Alexander A Jones
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2016.
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