What a world...A charity said many girls use the trick to be separated by their parents and escape a forced marriage arranged for them in their family’s homeland, according to The Independent.
The revelation from Karma Nirvana, a Derby-based charity which runs a helpline for victims of forced marriages, comes after a Government warning to teachers, doctors and airport staff that school pupils who seem to be going away on holiday may in fact be heading towards an arranged marriage.
Forced marriages are especially common during the summer holidays, when there’s less of a chance the child’s absence will be noticed.
The Foreign Office’s Forced Marriage Unit received 400 reports in the three months up to the end of August last year, though it is believed that many more cases go unreported. More than a third of those affected are under 16.
Karma Nirvana, which was set up by Jasvinder Sanghera who was disowned by her Sikh family aged 16 when she refused to marry a man in India, takes about 600 calls a month.
Charity spokesperson, Natasha Rattu said: “When youngsters ring, if they don’t know exactly when it may happen, or if it’s going to happen, we advise them to put a spoon in their underwear.
“When they go through security, it will highlight this object in a private area and, if 16 or over, they will be taken to a safe space where they have that one last opportunity to disclose they’re being forced to marry.
“We’ve had people ring and say that it’s helped them and got them out of a dangerous situation. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do with your family around you – but they won’t be aware you have done it. It’s a safe way.”
The cases handled by the Forced Marriage Unit include a two-year-old victim while the oldest victim was a 71-year-old. Almost half of the 1,500 cases handled a year involve Pakistan, Bangladesh counts for 11 per cent and India eight per cent.
Sameem Ali, a Manchester city councillor, was forced into a marriage in Pakistan when she was 13, and was brought back to the UK months after she became pregnant, aged 14.
She told BBC Breakfast: “I did not know I was going to get forced into a marriage until a week before the marriage actually occurred. I had never seen the guy before. I was in the middle of nowhere and I did not know where I was.”
On the one hand I'm glad this organizations exist and are addressing the problem... Even if it's with strategic silverware.
On the other, I'm deeply vexed that these organizations even need to exist. This shouldn't be a problem.
