Tower Hamlet is one of the most populated areas of London borough with a total population more than 3 lakhs. The geography of Tower Hamlet is somehow mixed with young people of the South Asian community and people of British origin. The major problem of this area is violence against women and girls (VAWG) through forced marriage, domestic violence, gender-based acts and honour crimes. Various cases of forced marriage are registered with the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) which involves young women from South Asian countries as well as countries of East Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The purpose of this portfolio is to highlight the tradition of forced marriage followed by the Asian community placed in Tower Hamlets of London Borough. For this purpose, the report will access the existing literature about understanding forced marriage, marriage in Asian community its impact and health issues. This report also includes the various methodologies of forced marriage and domestic violence practices by the Asian community of Tower Hamlets. Research methodology also helps to gain understanding and information of the current scenario of the problem with the help of method of study and data collection. There will be use of qualitative methodology and data will be collected by interview method which includes familiarisation, stakeholder and survivor interviews. Lastly, the major findings from the detailed research involve customs followed by the Asian community like domestic violence with women and young girls, forced marriage and other crimes against women in London Borough of Tower Hamlets. This report will help to identify the reasons for forced marriage its consequences and the reasons for the issue at vast level among the South Asian community so that this issue can be overcome by putting efforts and awareness among the society to overcome this issue.
Impact of forced marriage among Asian community in tower hamlet borough of London
London Borough of Tower Hamlets is present in East London that is covering much of the traditional East End. The Borough has been developed in 1965 by merging Bethnal Green and Metropolitan Boroughs of Stepney.
According to Gill, and Anitha, (2017), Where one or both of the individual are not mutually agreed to get married and are forced or coerced to get married is termed as forced marriage (Gill and Anitha, 2017). There are cases when some people will not agree to get married because of a certain form of disability. There is a certain form of compulsion is involved in the forced marriage and this compulsion will be a form of physical, psychological, financial, sexual and emotional pressure.
As per Towerhamlets.gov.uk, (2018), The Government of UK has outlined the clear difference between the arranged and forced marriage and is totally based on the issue of choice (Towerhamlets.gov.uk, 2018). In arranged marriages, the families of both the spouses are taking the primary role for identifying marriage partner, but the choice is solely depending on the prospective spouses that whether to accept or refuse the proposal. While in contrary, in the forced marriage there is no such choice- one or both the spouses is not in favour of marriage or their consent is extracted under compulsion.
In practice, this distinction is not very clear. In fact, Choice is the type of variable that is operating along a gamut between marriages and has been imposed upon the individuals against their wish and is arranged on their behalf as per their consent.
In addition, as per the recently published practice of the multi-agency guidelines for handling the cases of forced marriage has recognised that certain individuals will not restrict the forced marriage because they will not have the ability to restrict. According to Gill, and Anitha, (2017).Vulnerable young individuals and adults with physical or any form of learning disability are suffering the impact of unwillingly forced marriage (Gill and Anitha, 2017). The young people who are assumed to have poor prospects of marriage are more likely to face forced marriages, though there are certain things such as learning issues, sensory, physical are some of the reasons that are increasing the prospects of marriage as poor
As per Gill, and Anitha, (2017), Forced marriage in Town Hamlet in the UKoften happens in three prevailing forms: fear of forced marriage in UK or in overseas; already having forced marriage in overseas and UK; and a person who came in UK as a result of forced marriage (Gill and Anitha, 2017). Despite the nature of seriousness in the territory it is very difficult to get an accurate picture in this regard. This pathetic situation is not because of underreporting for crimes several heinous crimes against women but also because of agencies failure to record such an accurate form of statistics.
As per some other sources, in the UK there are assumed to be 1000 cases registered for forced marriage and majority of incidence will happen with Asian community women in Town hamlet region. As per the arguments by some people, it may be merely ‘the iceberg tip’. As per Towerhamlets.gov.uk, (2018), the UK government will be dealing with approximately 1600 such incidents where there is forced marriage is going to happen in the year 2008 alone(Towerhamlets.gov.uk, 2018). While as per their report there are as many as more than 3000 women who forced for marriage without consent in the UK each year. While men and boys are also affected by forced marriage but the issue will be impacting the women and girls for a longer duration. As per Towerhamlets.gov.uk, (2018), Statistics that are taken from the unit of forced marriage will show that in the year 2008 alone 85 percent of cases ismade up by Asian community women aged between 13 to 30 years(Towerhamlets.gov.uk, 2018). Besides this women and girls are being forced to marry more in numbers than male and are succumbed to several firms of violence. For instance in Asian communities women will have to undergo female genital mutilation before they able to get married while there are also some incidences have been recorded where Asian women will have to suffer repeated rape till they became pregnant as well as has to suffer domestic violence from their family members and spouse.
As per Suroor, (2016), In the Asian community forced marriage is most usually taking place in the majority of the religions such as Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Jewish as well as Christian community (Suroor, 2016). Forced marriage is a human rights violation and is a certain form of domestic violence.
Violence against women is becoming a global issue and will be linked to several hierarchical relationships between women and men. It has been further highlighted that the issue of forced marriage is multilayered and complex and is depending totally on the community, the culture of the community, the related family situation and traditional notions prevailing in the family. Their research will further reveal that
As per Wray, (2016), Forced marriage in this community will be affecting the majority of young women than young men (Wray, 2016). In 2009 alone the Forced marriage unit (FMU) has given support or advice to total 1682 cases. 86 percent of these cases will involve only females and 14 percent are merely males. However, statistics that is evolved from the research, conducted on behalf of families, schools and children in 2009 will involve the local organisation in the forced marriage and will show that in 96 percent of the cases of forced marriage are involving only females and only 4 percent are involving male only. As per the reports of the local organisations, 41 percentf the forced marriage cases will be involving younger people below 18 years of age.
However,the research will show that figures of the forced marriage (actual forced marriage and pressure of forced marriage) is relatively much higher because of occurrence cases that are reported is assumed to be between 5,000 to 8,000 young individuals every year. Though the actual incidences of forced marriage are assumed to far higher than these figures as there are many cases that are nor reported till the time being. As per Wray, (2016), A report that has been commissioned in 2008 by Margaret Moron in the Tower of Hamlet has identified that there are over more than 300 people who had approached Metropolitan police and the home office (Wray, 2016).
Forced marriage will not only happen exclusively only on the South Asian communities but as per the research, it has been found that 97 percent of the people who are seeking help or advice regarding the forced marriage is primarily identified as Asian community.
As per Pande, (2015), Forced marriage has been recognised as a form of domestic violence and is deemed as a form of exerting control and power over the person’s choices (Pande, 2015). There are very strong links among the so-called ‘honour-based’ violence where a person who doesn’t have any consent is seemed to be shaming or dishonouring the family. As per Pande, (2015), There are several reasons that are given by several family members, parents and community and are forcing young individuals for marriage (Pande, 2015). Parents are saying that they are protecting their cultural heritage, developing stronger family links or several religious traditions.
Other primary reasons that are given in support of the forced marriage are such as it has been performed for controlling the younger people’s sexuality, preventing likely unsuitable relationship, for controlling lesbian or gay relationship which is happening in recent times.
As per Brown, (2012), In order to tackle forced marriage in the Tower Hamlets, the key role of the approach of Borough is to address the child abuse and domestic violence (Brown, 2012). The borough has raised the awarenessrelated to this issue, associated risk factors and nature of the abuse types within community and professionals and is encourage reporting. As per Ward, (2012), There are several specific activities are being included in this context such as framing local guidance mechanism to the cases of forced marriage, providing training to the front line staff regarding the prevailing legislations regarding forced marriages and the steps required to be taken for restricting forced marriage (Ward, 2012). Promoting support to the community by providing support through “no excuse for domestic abuse” campaign
As per Chantler, (2012), There are incidences where it has been witnessed that victims of forced marriage are prone to several health issues (Chantler, 2012). In some of the cases, the individuals who are succumbed to forced marriage will become victims of domestic abuse. In certain cases as an outcome of a violent form of compulsion, the victim is forced to marry within the immediate family or extended family member.As per Chantler, (2012), Inthe majority of the cases, the family members of the victim’s spouse will be abusive (Chantler, 2012). It has been witnessed that in the majority of these victims will be affected physically and psychologically and the signs will remain for the long term. If these issues are not resolved the victim may do self-harm or affected by depression in the state of unbalanced emotional or psychological abuse. Per Charsley, and Benson, (2012), this will happen in the cases of fear of forced marriage and also because of forced marriage (Charsley, and Benson, 2012). There are studies that will be witnessing that younger women from the South Asian community will be more likely to commit suicide than any other community who are succumbed to these issues.
Although the requirement and need of the potential victims will vary widely among the potential form of victims and after remaining in forced marriage situation they will not like to address the issues and has accepted that fact that it is their destiny. As per the health professionals, it has been needed that these cases are to be handled specifically with proven sensitivity. As per Charsley, and Benson, (2012), One of the main issue that health professional should address regarding patients of forced marriage is concern regarding the personal safety of the individual (Charsley, and Benson, 2012). It has been witnessed where a certain individual has tried to escape from the forced marriages then they will become the victims of honour killings. It is very important to recognise the severity of such type of cases. As mentioned in earlier that several victims of the forced marriage will be young people and children and in these cases proper child safeguard procedures. As per Din, (2016), The risk is not only limited to young individual and children (Din, 2016). When these victims came in contact of health professionals the families of these victims also become aware that they have required support other agencies and several other health professionals. It will put them in a risky situation. These will increase the lifetime risk to these victims and there may be a possibility that the date of forced marriage will be increased forward and they be taken out of the country. So In order to effectively deal with these cases confidentiality has been maintained.
As per Din, (2016), Health professionals will don’t have any statutory powers to deal with the risks associated with forced marriage (Din, 2016). It is therefore required to understand the feelings, wishes and specific need of the victims and every case of required sensitivity along with needed confidentiality. It is also required to engage the social services or police as per the severity of the cases.
As per Din, (2016), many of the sufferers of forced marriage will be specifically come from ethnic Asian minorities and maybe they are extremely dependent on the family members(Din, 2016). The education level and experience also very little of usually these victims and these arethe primary reason behind the dependency. In order to take help from the statutory authorities, these victims will be required to leave their family behind and they are sometimes suffering from the mental dilemma that their actions will bring shame to the family and person. For several victims, this will stop them from approaching a statutory government authority.
This unit outlines the adopted approach employed and challenges involve during the research. This research is divided into two phases. The first phase includes an interview with a variety of government departments, NGOs and other statutory organisation. The second phase involves stakeholder interviews, mapping survey, in-depth interaction with victims of forced marriage and interview with a range of community people.
Forced marriage is critical in nature and the survivors of such practices are not easily available for any interaction or public debates. So, it is a challenging task to obtain reliable information from such a community and develop a detail research report on forced marriage within a limited time frame (Lewis, 2015). This topic is very complex to define which involves various traditions and understandings of Asian community that experienced domestic violence and cases of forced marriage. However, forced marriage is not limited to particular nationalities or group of a religious entity, the majority of cases registered to the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) are from the South Asian community.
The above methodological challenges give a brief sketch the way research was undertaken. It builds an approach that proves to be successful and adopted a qualitative methodology involves phases of the research project (Lewis, 2015).
Familiarisation visit is the first phase of this research methodology. The research team identified 13 government organisations, many voluntary agencies and statutory departments for a detailed report on forced marriage. Representatives or managers of these agencies were enquired whether the proper methodology is followed or not.
Many interviews were conducted including telephonic and face to face interaction with stakeholders. These interviews are based on the work done by the organisation on forced marriage, views and experiences on forced marriage and social impact on the society.
This is the most complex stage in which interviews are conducted on victims of domestic violence and forced marriage.These interactions are open-ended questions like individual choice, chances of domestic violence, and the effects of forced marriage.
The research team conducted mapping surveys to identify wide locations where forced marriage may occur (Lewis, 2015).. Their main task is to obtain experiences and views from different agencies about the impact of forced marriage among women and young girls.
Forced marriage is not only an issue of the South Asian community but it includes a wide geographic area outside the Asian Diaspora. This unit discusses the findings of the abovestudies on forced marriage in the Asian community of Tower Hamlet.
Many surveys and interviews are conducted by the research team on women and young girls who are a survivor of domestic violence and forced marriage. In a forced marriage, women’s have no choice to say no to marriage. Both physical and mental pressure was experienced by women. Today many NGOs, government organisation came forward to help the victims of forced marriage (Vibetti, 2017).
Basically, this is the cultural practice followed by a range of the community. Participant women in surveys disclosethe variousreason for forced marriage like maintaining family honour, protection from unsuitable relationships, dowry case and strengthen links with community people.
Impact of forced marriage is more on women than men as per research team. Women’s who are forced in a marriage relationship are prone to emotional imbalance, critical health issues and family abuse. Women’s are physical, mentally and financially affected without any family support. So, after the impact of forced marriage remain for a longer period of time (Vibetti, 2017).
Again, unwanted pressure is an important aspect of forced marriage. Women’s of Asian community experiences and reported many types of duress to Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) such as physical abuse, life threats, threats to through back to home state, false imprisonment, emotional and financial abuse, demand for dowry.
The women have always hoped for positive support from supportive groups and expect that this pressure of forced marriage will stop. Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), the police and other external agencies involved in providing support to the survivors of forced marriage ((Vibetti, 2017).
Conclusion
In the Asian community, forced marriage affects women more than men. It is an issue which is not limited to a particular community. Impact of forced marriage on young women is the most terrible. Women’s should have suitable access to psychological and emotional support who is the survivors of forced marriage. Safety factor for women and young girlsshould be considered by the external agencies. Culture or tradition what may be the case, zero tolerance for the offenders and proper charges should be imposed on them. Adopting proper research methodology is very vital to conduct various surveys and interviews with victims of forced marriage. Appropriate training to equip representatives of agencies was needed. Lastly, awareness of this issue is very vital which affects the women and young girls of the Asian community in Tower Hamlet.
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