BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Enforced marriage law forces couple apart
This is the story of a couple consisting of a British man and his Canadian bride, who married quite legally in the UK last year, and their marriage was delayed because of paperwork getting lost. Four days after their marriage, new rules were brought in which meant that foreign spouses under the age of 21 were no longer going to get spousal visas. This was supposedly to prevent forced marriages.
This all sounds like nonsense. The laws were aimed at Muslims, but not to stop forced marriage. They are a social engineering measure, intended to bring the age of marriage among Muslims more into line with the rest of society (of course, women usually marrying in their late 20s or 30s is a quite recent phenomenon; my parents got married in 1972 when my Dad was 21 and my Mum 19), to lower the birth rates (a woman could have two in those three years) and to make sure that more of the spouses have degrees. A similar measure was introduced in Denmark, with the age set to 24, and Migration Watch has campaigned for the same law to be introduced here. If the government had wanted to deal with the forced marriages, they could have provided means for such spouses to escape, but immigration rules such as “no recourse” often prevent foreign spouses (usually wives) who are trapped in abusive marriages from escaping.
As ever, the media makes a huge fuss when a white person gets treatment usually reserved for wogs. I think this woman should be allowed to remain in this country, but I also think that any foreign spouse of a British citizen should be allowed to stay in the UK if the marriage is legal in the UK and not obviously fake. And this goes for white and black, whatever their religion.
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lol, I am watching this and thought of the same. Problem with these ppl is that they introduce such weird laws for people they consider weird, but they forget that it is the average man/woman who will be affected.
Do you think there has been an intentional conspiracy by governments against the family, masterminded either by would-be totalitarians (seeking to increase dependence on the state), or by neo-Malthusians (seeking to reduce birth rates)?
“They are a social engineering measure, intended to bring the age of marriage among Muslims more into line with the rest of society,… to lower the birth rates (a woman could have two in those three years) and to make sure that more of the spouses have degrees.” All of which help mean that the spouses (many of the men involved in forced marriages are not over-enthusiastic) are older, more mature, better educated and so more likely to resist family pressure to engage in a marriage made entirely for family convenience and to leave a marriage- with fewer children- if it fails. Nor is it “anti-muslim”, while this custom is more common among Indian muslims, it is not unique to them.
They may be inhumane and ineffective, but the “no recourse” laws are intended to stop people regarding marriage- any marriage, regardless of the suitability of the spouse- as a short-cut to the supposed cornucopia of a British passport. It is surely better to take measures to prevent forced or coerced marriages in the first place, rather than expecting the state to deal with the damage later.
Hmm, not sure about this. Forced marriage is a very real and significant problem effecting young Muslim, Hindu and Sikh citizens, both male and female.
It was a major issues when I worked with a helpline serving the Muslim community a few years back. At that time Muslims were pushing for state intervention to curtail such marriages, which are both an abuse of the individuals’ rights and of our deen’s clear opposition to them.
I’m no expert on the matter, but it sounds a little flawed to say the laws are aimed at raising the marriage age of Muslims, since it is linked to a visa, not to permission to marry. But Allah knows best.
Salaam Alaikum,
I’ve got to agree with Tim here. Tragically, there are those in our community (and others) who seek to abuse the institution of marriage and these laws were aimed at preventing that.
Salaam Tim & Safiya,
The raised age for marriage visas came in after the FMA was introduced - it is a rule, not law. However, I don’t accept the explanation given that there had been pressure from the anti-immigration lobby to make this change for some time, particularly after Denmark did the same, also for social engineering purposes aimed at Muslims, and it had the same effects on “innocent” white couples.
I do accept that there is a need to prevent forced marriages, but I don’t believe that these rules were necessary and neither did the victims of forced marriages that were surveyed before the rules were changed (as the report says). The rules could have been made so as to require fluency in English, educational qualifications or some other requirement that cuts out the “marrying the cousin from the village back home” nonsense (not just forced marriages) while still allowing genuine couples of consenting adults to live in the UK. Eighteen-year-olds are adults, let’s face it.
The issue of forced marriages is definitely a problem in many muslim communities, and it seems like we muslims ourselves are failing to do anything constructive to tackle this issue. Are we then in a position to suspect the laws being passed by the government?
“The rules could have been made so as to require fluency in English, educational qualifications or some other requirement that cuts out the “marrying the cousin from the village back home” nonsense (not just forced marriages) while still allowing genuine couples of consenting adults to live in the UK.”
There is nothing wrong with “marrying the cousin from the village back home”, or someone else’s cousin from someone else’s village back home for that matter, and there is no reason why educational qualifications, lack of fluency in English or other factors should necessarily make someone unsuitable as a marriage partner. The problem comes when people are coerced into marriage against their will or judgment and the younger they are the easier it is to do that.