Forced Marriage in the UK

Campaign launched to raise awareness for forced marriage in the UK

  • NQ reporter and MMU student Zaynab Khan, has launched a new campaign "saying no" to the rising problem of forced marriage in the UK
  • Forced marriage is a highly underreported crime in the UK

Forced marriage is a crime that happens regularly in the UK but is highly underreported and has had just one successful prosecution in England since it became a criminal offence in 2014.

Young victims such as Shafilea Ahmed, Nadia Menaz and Robina Sanghera have suffered greatly at the hands of the invisible crime which supposedly doesn’t exist in Britain. This ignorance has further allowed their lives to be filled with abuse and hatred, and their deaths to go unnoticed and in vain. With a large majority of Brits being disillusioned to what it really is and more importantly victims being brainwashed into accepting what must be done for family honour, we say “no more."

The most important thing to enjoy in this life is love, and to be stripped of the right to experience that is inhumane. Everyone has the right to marry who they wish and taking a stance against forced marriage does not make you insensitive to other cultures, it makes you human to the suffering of your fellow people. 

Through our campaign we are hoping to change ideologies on 'love comes after' or 'that’s their culture' and with your help, we'd like to fight the problem first and foremost in the minds of victims and prevail in solidifying the norm more widely amongst victim’s communities that being forced to love someone is wrong and outdated as we continue to raise awareness and support victims.

Sign our petition so services that victims feel comfortable coming forward to like the Karma Nirvana charity can be better funded:

Change.org/chainedinmatrimony

Follow our campaign at : www.chainedinmatrimony.wordpress.com and keep updated with us on our social media, on Facebook @chainedmatrimony, or on our Twitter.