MixTogether & Friends

Last Sunday’s Telegraph carried a solid piece on forced marriage by Cyrus Shahrad.

Women who escape forced marriages.

The piece includes testimony from victims and key workers in the field, including Jasvinder Sanghera (Karma Nirvana), Zena (previously of Jack and Zena) and Olaf Henricson-Bell (Forced Marriage Unit).

As such it is a very competent, standard-issue piece on forced marriage. The conclusions at the end are also very familiar to anyone who follows this subject:

Yet some, including Jasvinder Sanghera, believe there’s still much to be done. She’s lobbying David Cameron to make good on his electoral promise to criminalise forced marriage (the statutory guidelines of the 2008 Forced Marriage Civil Protection Act carry no penalty to enforce implementation, and the affiliated protection orders can lead to under-age victims being returned to their families, which she says is ‘very worrying’).

Others claim that victims are still falling into gaps between government policy and practice: Bita Ghaedi, for example, whom the Home Office has been trying to deport since she arrived in Britain without a passport in October 2006, having fled a man she was forced to marry in Tehran.

The big forced marriage campaigners habitually target agencies of the British state (the Government, the courts, the Police, social services) and lobby them for improvements in service provision to victims or more effective legal remedies. Reading these kind of reports, one would be forgiven for thinking that the key to solving the problems of forced marriage lies with the British state.

It actually lies with the communities where these problems originate.

Although state and voluntary agencies must strive to provide the best possible services for victims, there will come a point when they can do no more. The law of diminishing returns applies to campaigning in this area as it does everywhere else, and over the last 5 years a great deal has been achieved. If the Conservatives deliver on their promise to criminalise forced marriage (fingers crossed), there is literally no more that Government can offer in terms of legislation. What will e.g. Jasvinder Sanghera campaign on after that?

The time is rapidly approaching when campaigners will have to turn their attention to preventative measures rather than treatments.

MixTogether’s ongoing attempt to get some recognition of marriage issues within Asian broadcast media is one of the first preventative campaigns by any group. Eventually all campaigners will have to admit that the problem lies not with Britain but with certain unwelcome cultural imports from South Asia and other countries that need to be confronted at source and removed.

The Independent reports that survivors of forced marriage are to tour the country, attempting to empower children to access vital local services:

Survivors of forced marriage go on UK tour – Independent

“Each summer hundreds of girls and boys, largely from South Asian communities, travel with their families to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where they are forced into marriages… Those working to stop the practice say the period just before the summer holiday is always their busiest time of the year. They hope that prompting survivors to tell their own stories will encourage children at risk to come forward and local authorities to take those fears seriously when they do.”

We wish Karma Nirvana the very best of luck with this vital work, and commend them for boldly communicating their message in this way. Yet it is sad to see them launching another drive to hammer this message home. The same ‘news’ about children being at risk of forced marriage was brought up before last year’s summer holidays.

What exactly was it about this very serious message that was not communicated properly to schools last year? Why are Karma Nirvana having to devote precious time and energy to repeating the same message?

It does not take a genius to work out that there is a direct correlation between the relative concentration of an Asian community and the incidence of forced marriage and honour based violence in that area. The areas considered most at risk are the areas with the highest concentrations of Asian families: Derby, Nottingham, Huddersfield, Leicester, Oldham, Hounslow, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Bradford and Leeds (as reported by the Independent)*.

Yet apparently the Police, local councils and teachers in those areas are not sufficiently aware of the problems underneath their noses. Instead it requires a group of volunteers to tell under-16s that they are at risk of kidnap, druggings, beatings, rape and possibly murder, in the HOPE that they will access local authority assistance, and the HOPE that the local authority will respond appropriately. Here’s hoping.

It is a disgrace that the only group prepared to tour well-known problem areas is Karma Nirvana. This is a deep-rooted social problem that requires focus and resources to eradicate. One charity cannot do it alone.

EVERYONE knows what forced marriage and honour based violence are, and where they mainly occur.  The Government knows where the problems are; so does the Opposition.

Without a shadow of a doubt, so does the whole of the tiny Asian Media clique that controls the newspapers, radio stations and blogs with the power to speak to and influence those communities.

There used to be a concern that misplaced cultural sensitivity was leading the ‘white establishment’ to overlook the plight of young Asian women and men. Today the problem is a misplaced cultural loyalty among the ‘Asian establishment’  that is preventing those who could help the most from pitching in.

The supposedly ‘Asian tinged’ Pickled Politics blog run by Sunny Hundal has stopped reporting on cases like those of Geeta Aulakh and Aliza Mirza, and no longer runs news items like the Karma Nirvana tour. It regularly carries news items about the BNP, but is yet to compare the BNP threat to the problems that Karma Nirvana are trying to highlight. It is clear where the more immediate danger to young Asians actually lies: BNP members are not kidnapping ‘hundreds of girls and boys’ and forcing them into marriage.

Similarly the BBC Asian Network is not doing enough to help. They insist that their phone-ins are sufficient as a way to air difficult issues. If that was true, we would have seen a drop in the number of forced marriages by now. Instead the number of reported forced marriages and honour crimes has rocketed in the last 3 years.

It is not true to say that the BBC Asian Network is doing anything like enough to help, and the Police statistics prove it.

How much more help would it be if someone like Bobby Friction gave a bit of public support to campaigners against forced marriage. It should be no more controversial than supporting, say, an anti-racist or anti-bullying charity, so what is the problem? Why is the whole Asian Network- from Managers to DJs- incapable of admitting that they could do more? If they are serious about tackling the issues that dominate their phone-ins, why don’t they ask the volunteers and campaigners who actually fight honour crimes what they should do? Instead they arrogantly assume that they are doing enough- THEY AREN’T.

Karma Nirvana deserve admiration, respect and donations as they prepare to tour the country.  Whether those in the Asian Media who should be helping them deserve the privileged positions they occupy is another question.

*Those areas map almost exactly onto the 5 proposed service areas for the new BBC Asian Network.

Hi to those who don’t know me. I’m a regular visitor to the Mixtogether forum. I am currently involved in a mixed relationship as the unacceptable partner, me being white and my boyfriend indian. Anyway there’s more about that on the forum!

Continuing on the theme of forced marriage, I came across the following website from a press release at work.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease021109a.htm

This is something I knew nothing about, that a victim of forced marriage can now take out an order through the civil courts to prevent a forced marriage from taking place. In fact, a third party such as a local authority or a charity can take out this order on the victims behalf if they feel that the person is at risk.

Local authorities can now seek a protection order for vulnerable adults and children without first having to seek leave of the court.

“Forced Marriage Protection Orders can help vulnerable victims in a range of situations depending on what is needed most. These include orders to:

• prevent anyone entering into any arrangements for engagement or marriage
• hand over passports to stop someone from being taken abroad
• stop intimidation and violence
• reveal the whereabouts of a person.

Failure to comply with an order could lead to imprisonment. Courts are also able to initiate steps to return those already forced into marriage back to the UK.”

This is a massive leap forward in the law and the Ministry of Justice have done a great deal to publicise this internally, I have found various info on the net aswell. It seems to me that this is offering more protection for the victim and they will have the support not only of the government but also be backed up by the local authority or a voluntary organisation such as Karma Nirvana. It also highlights that new ways are being thought up to help the victim of a crime that in the past has been brushed aside.

The website also contains links to the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007, related information and lists the courts and organisations that are involved. I hope that anyone who reads this blog who is in danger of forced marriage they may find some comfort in what I have written and get in touch with one of the organisations involved.

This link provides more info and also offers some information in a number of different languages: http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/14490.htm

This is the inaugural post on MixTogether & Friends,

from Jasvinder Sanghera of Karma Nirvana.

I am very happy to be writing the inaugural post for this new blog, MixTogether & Friends.

My hope is that this blog will generate and improve discussion about the real issues of honour abuse and forced marriages in Britain. I hope that the realities of how these abuses are blighting the lives of many will inspire action.

With that aim in mind, my opening post is an invitation to join a crucial campaign.

The Honour Network, a phoneline that supports victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour based violence, is under threat of having its government funding cut.

I am simply asking you to add your name to a petition on the Number 10 website, requesting that the Honour Network helpline continue to be funded. If you could spread the word to your respective online networks that would also be a real help.

We do not have any funding now to sustain the line, having previously received funding from the Home Office and Forced Marriage Unit.

Despite my pleas for support to the Government we have found ourselves in the position of having to eventually close the life-line that many people call in need of Karma Nirvana’s support.

The fact is that the line has been funded by kind public donations  for the past 6 months despite the Governments commitment to supporting the Honour Network.

This is a truly progressive campaign that should appeal to people of all political persuasions. If you would like to read my detailed account of the background to this campaign, please click ‘more’ below.

Thank you,

Jasvinder Sanghera

Karma Nirvana.

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