Gay men are increasingly being forced into marriage because their families refuse to accept their homosexuality, the Government revealed today.
The Forced Marriage Unit says there has been a surge such cases over the past year.
The number of contacts with the Whitehall agency concerning male victims increased from 134 in 2008 to 220 in 2009, a rise of 65 per cent.
But officials believe the figures are still only 'the tip of an iceberg' as the problem is under-reported concerning both sexes.
Men accounted for just 14 per cent of the total number of forced marriage cases, numbering 1,682, referred to the FMU last year.
It is estimated that in reality there are more like 10,000 incidents of forced marriage involving British nationals each year and that up to 20 per cent are men.
The large majority of cases involve families from south Asia, particularly Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
Victims are often locked up, subjected to physical and sexual violence and forcibly removed to other countries if they refuse to comply with their families' wishes.
Men in particular frequently face being forced to marry because their families refuse to accept their homosexuality.
Other cases can revolve around property issues, securing visas or other family expectations.
Most victims are aged between 15 and 24.
But the FMU, a joint unit of the Foreign Office and Home Office, is concerned that many people fail to realise that it is an issue that even affects men.
With the approach of the summer holidays, when the danger of young people being taken out of the country against their will is particularly high, ministers sought to raise awareness.
Support is available from caseworkers at the FMU and victims, or people acting on their behalf, can apply for a Forced Marriage Protection Order.
Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said the Government wanted to help communities address the issue and urged victims to speak out.
"Boys and men who are forced into marriage find it harder to ask for help than women, but we are urging males affected by forced marriage to speak out and seek the help that is available to them," he said.
"Of course, women make up the majority of forced marriage victims and over 1,400 reports of women facing this abuse were dealt with by the unit last year.
2 comments:
And what a treat for the wives who have been forced into marrying these guys. Is it halal to beat your wife for not being a man?
Chechen Police Shoot Paintballs at Women With Uncovered Hair
by Sarah Menkedick
Police officers in Chechnya have been firing paintballs at Chechen women with uncovered hair; the policemen drive by in cars with tinted windows and shoot the women in the face and neck as they’re walking down the street.
Following the initial attacks last week, fliers from the shooters appeared in the Chechen city of Gudermes warning that if women didn’t cover themselves the paintballers would resort to “tougher measures.” The fliers also admonished, “Isn’t it nasty for you, while dressed defiantly, with your head uncovered, to hear various obscene ‘compliments’ and proposals? Think again!”
This infuriating and degrading development — shooting women with paint?! — is one result of Russia’s cold bargain with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen rebel-turned-Kremlin-loyalist. Trying to maintain control over Chechnya and quash any separatist uprisings, Russia has essentially allowed Kadryov to run the Chechen republic according to his version of Islamic law.
Russia has turned the other cheek as Kadryov gathers thousands of men into a personal militia to enforce bans on alcohol and mandatory headscarves for women. This method of enforcement via paintballing is particularly abhorrent — both violent and humiliating, a form of subtle terror aimed at forcing women into subjugation.
Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva told Reuters, “this paintballing is an obvious Kadyrov rule just used to strengthen and tighten his grip over his tiny republic.” Shooting women with paint in the face on the street and filming it on mobile phones, then, is apparently this man’s idea of strengthening power. This is an alarming sign of the increasing oppression of women in Chechnya that the international community needs to speak out about immediately, chastising both Kadyrov and the government in Moscow for violent violations of women’s rights and dignity
Post a Comment