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(DailyMail). A shocking nationwide survey stated that 3,000 young girls have been forced into marriage, including over 300 from New York.The new data dispels the myth that forced marriage is a foreign issue and it discovered that there were instances in 47 of the country's 50 states within the last two years.  

In one of the most disturbing cases, a 13 year old girl arrived in the U.S. only to be forced into a marriage where her new husband enrolled her in a school in the Washington D.C. area by saying he was her father, only to rape her every night when she came home.

Compiled by the non-profit Tahirih Justice Center, the report examined cases of forced or suspected forced marriages where families often made their young daughters marry older men in order to benefit financially from the coupling or avoid 'losing face' for the family name.  

'We’ve already learned enough in the survey to tell us we’re just hitting the tip of the iceberg,' said Layli Miller-Muro, executive director of the Tahirih Center. The practice differs from arranged marriages, which are common practice in some cultures, because forced marriages happen without consent from the bride, and often involve under age girls.  

'I think the problem that you encounter sometimes is that people view it as cultural- so they don't really want to help,' said Yasmeen Hamza, a representative from the Arab-American Family Support Center in Brooklyn. The practice is most common among South Asian families, the Tahirih report states, but they did find examples from families of 56 different countries. (Hmm ... There just happen to be 57 Islamic states).

In addition to cultural misunderstanding, the lack of legal cover does not help advocates who are trying to get the girls out of the custody of their parents before the marriages are finalized. Ms Hamza's group has had some success working with the Administration of children's Services to take custody of the girls, but there are still many cases that are left untouched.

In one such case, a 14 year old girl from the Bronx escaped to the Sauti Yetu Center for African women for help because her parents were forcing her to marry a West African man. The Centre appealed to ACS to take custody of the girl, but because there were no clear signs of abuse or imminent danger, they were unable to take custody.

After returning the girl to her parents, Centre representatives never heard from her again.

ACS spokesman Michael Fagan said that forced marriage cases come up 'infrequently,' but they do fall under the administration's jurisdiction because they cover all incidents that 'places a child under 18 at risk for abuse, injury, or harm'.

'There is legislation that exclusively addresses this issue in developing countries, but there's an absence of similar legislation addressing this issue domestically,' said Julia Alanen, founder of the D.C.-based Global Justice Initiative. 

The United Nations declares forced marriage a violation of human rights and child abuse if involving girls under the age of 18.

The UK is looked to as a model to follow because there is formal legal recognition of the problem.In 2007, the Forced Marriage Act was created in the UK which includes preventative legal measures, such as an order that allows anyone that suspects that a girl is in danger of being forcibly married to call in to police and have an injunction placed against the girl's family. Since the order's implementation, more than 300 cases have been reported to authorities.

Read the full story here.

Interesting. I read that this study was compiled by the Tahrirh Justice Center, and I thought to myself, "Hey, here's a Muslim non-profit doing good work to help out people who are subject to injustice which often occurs as the direct result of Islam."

Nope. I was wrong.


The Tahrirh Justice Center is a Bahai Organization.

Still searching for the Moderate Muslim organization who does charity work out of the goodness of their own hearts.


Ever notice, by the way, that while there are many Jewish and Christian hospitals, serving people of all faiths, all over the United States, there are no Muslim hospitals? 

Heck, there are not even any Muslim hospitals serving Muslims only.


None.

There is not a single Muslim hospital in the United States.

But, I digress.