Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Forced Marriages and Honor-Based Violence

The BBC reports that there has been a marked increase in forced marriages and honor-based violence in Wales. Link here. Being pusillanimous to a fault, the BBC never mentions which particular community might be the source of these horrors. Of course, the local police force has set up a community outreach program and a support system for the girls who manage to escape this terror. 


Even though British Prime Minister David Cameron recently declared that multiculturalism did not work, it is alive and well in Wales. Of all places.


Unfortunately, when no one has the courage to write the word Islam next to these barbaric practices, those who practice them are spared the shame and opprobrium that they so richly deserve. Absent such shaming, these practices will continue, and young Muslim girls in Great Britain will continue to be sacrificed to the gods of multicultural diversity.

7 comments:

alicegwen said...

It's all those danged Welsh methodists forcing their daughters to marry the parsons' sons. Something must be done.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Exactly...

Anonymous said...

" those who practice them are shared the shame and opprobrium..."

= "those who practice them are sPared the shame and opprobrium"??

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Thanks... correction made.

Therapy Culture said...

Muslims aren't the only ones who do this. IN fact, in Islam it is forbidden to force someone to marry whom they don't want, so the Muslims who are doing that are not practicing Islam properly.

But you see forced marriages in any arranged marriage culture, and the entire "East" is full of arranged marriage that run the gammut from "assisted marriages" to "forced marriages".

Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and several other religionists as well as atheists are part of these cultures.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Phyllis Chesler just wrote an article on forced marriages. Here's a link: http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/960/forced-marriages-in-our-own-backyard

In many Asian countries families are part of the courtship process, often making introductions and doing some vetting. In most of these countries no one is forced to marry someone they do not want to marry. Let's call them "assisted marriages," as you correctly do.

With a forced marriage, a girl is sold to someone in marriage, against her will, without her consent.

I do think that there is something unique about the way Islam treats women. Today, there was an article about how women in Chechnya are being forced to adopt Islamic dress. If they don't they are being assaulted and harassed.

Therapy Culture said...

Indian people, who are considered "model minority" in the US engage in what I would call "forced marriage". You would not believe the pressure and threats exerted over them by their parents. Then of course their is the dowry issue.

Its not just Muslims by a long shot.

However because Indian men and women usually bow before the pressures of their parents and pretend they are alright with it, it goes unnoticed.