Tying the knot with someone you love is supposed to be one of the happiest days of a person's life. They've decided their partner is "the one" and have chosen to marry them. Choosing the person you want to spend the rest of your life with may seem obvious when it comes to marriage, but unfortunately not everyone is free to make this choice.
The UK government's Forced Marriage Unit sees more than 1,600 reports of forced marriages every year. Many are cases of British nationals being forced into marriage during a family visit overseas, where they can be physically or emotionally pressured to get married. In some cases, the victim is taken abroad without knowing they are to be married. A recent review by the Ministry of Justice found that nearly half of marriage protection orders in England and Wales were applied for by young women under 18.
Encourage discussions about how it might feel to be forced into marrying someone, or taken abroad against your will to be married. What would young people do if they were in this situation? What factors might make it difficult to stand up and say no? Talk about whether making your family happy is important in this situation. Should marriage be about the freedom to choose your own life-partner? Discuss experiences young people might have had with forced marriages, perhaps within their own families or with friends.
Forced marriages are different to arranged marriages: the latter is when families choose the marriage partner, and both people have a choice about entering the marriage. How do young people feel about arranged marriages? Should people be free to choose their own partner? Or is it more important to accept a religious or cultural tradition?
Consider how forced marriages don't just affect young women. The Albert Kennedy Trust, a London charity, has recently seen an increase in the number of young gay Muslim men that have fled forced marriages. The parents of one young gay Muslim man said he would be forced into marriage which would "cure" him of his "psychological disorder". Consider how this young man must have felt. How would his family feel?
Ask young people what can be done to better protect people from forced marriages. How would young people tackle the issue? How would they get the message across in communities that people are protected from forced marriage? Should social services be doing more to protect young men and women? Should the subject be tackled in schools? Ask young people how they would advise another young person who is being forced into marriage.
