Whilst some people and communities seem to think that forced marriage is okay, in fact, numerous international and regional legal instruments condemn the practices of forced and early marriage and all major religions, that is, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Jewish, are vocally against the practice. A child marriage is considered to be a form of forced marriage, given that one or both parties cannot have expressed full, free and informed consent.Īs you can see, forced marriage is not necessarily specific to one country or one culture. In Pakistan, the US State Department noted that, despite prohibitions, forced marriages were common for many children, some younger than 15 years. In Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and the Ukraine, for instance, girls in Romani communities often marry below the legal minimum age. According to the United Nations, children from around the world, including some just above or even below the age of puberty, are often forced to marry. Only six countries, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, do not specify a minimum age for marriage. In Scotland the legal age for marriage is 16 years the reason for UK consenting couples under the age of 18 without parental consent, eloping to places such as Gretna Green to marry. In response, the UK Government has said that all couples must enter into marriage freely by law, but a spokesperson added that the Government was “listening carefully to the debate on the legal age of marriage”. They warn of the “invisible but thriving issue” of marriage by parental consent in the UK, saying that parental consent often amounts to coercion, and that teenage girls are regularly married off to older men who they have never met. Charities including Barnardo’s claim that this contributes to sexual violence and domestic abuse and possible forced marriages, and want to ban under-18s marrying in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland this age is 18 years, although 16- and 17-year-olds can marry with parental consent. Surely this practice belongs to centuries past – no, it is alive and thriving in the 21 st century.ĩ6% of the world’s countries have laws that specify when people can legally marry. The term forced marriage conjures up the notion of the “shotgun wedding” of an incensed father marching the groom up the aisle to marry the pregnant bride to save the families’ reputations.
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