Category Archives: forced marriage

Sweden’s integration minister upset about forced ‘marriage’ in Malmo

Posted on by

The Swedish authorities seem to be noticing some of the more illiberal aspects to their multicultural paradise. The following is a machine translation from this Swedish newspaper. While its a tad rough, you will get the idea. Sooner or later, even the Swedes had to notice that Islam will clash with any other notion of basic human rights and the dignity and person-hood of women.

We want to stop forced marriages:

TYRANNY We note that honor repression has been accused of racism, but forced marriages exist in Sweden. (FP). Therefore, the government presents today a new strategy to prevent young are married against their will, writes Nyamko Sabuni (PF).

A girl in Malmö was married when she was in fifth grade.  She was twelve years old. The following year she started in sixth grade.  Still too young to drive a moped, see adult films at the cinema or even get the scores.  By that time she lived with her husband and gave birth to her first child.  This was depicted in a series of articles about forced marriages in Sydsvenska Dagbladet.  At least 25 high school girls Scanian was reported to be married every summer, but that the community responded.

It has long been lacking a solid knowledge of forced marriage in Sweden. Those of us who warned of honor repression has been questioned. Like when the Socialist government investigators Masoud Kamali accused us of fomenting racism.

But culture relative addicts can no longer deny that this oppression affects thousands of young people. A number of institutions on behalf of the Government reported on the prevalence of violence and oppression. According to the Youth Board, there are at least 70 000 young people who feel that parents, religion and culture set limits on who they can marry.

In two studies (Socialstyrelsen Stockholm University in 2007 and 2009) found that among young people living with limitations related to marriage are those who are vulnerable to psychological and physical violence by parents or other relatives.  A review of county court judgments, which were seized as young as a result of, for example, domestic violence, shows that one third of all convictions in 2007 were girls (who) were (victims of)  honor (related crimes). Most had been victims of violence by relatives, sometimes for years.  Half had been threatened to death.  Almost all had received themselves take the initiative to seek help.

The picture is alarming. Today the government decides on a strategy for continued work to prevent young people are married against their will. The focus is on strengthening prevention, support and protection, improved collaboration between agencies and increased knowledge.

. • Protection against forced marriages and child marriages are tightened. Investigator of Justice Goran Lambertz Council, has been asked to suggest how including forced marriages and child marriages may be criminalized.

• Rehabilitation of the victims of honor crimes. Children who are disposed to honor because of repression may have been victims of violence for a long time.  They could be threatened by the family and relatives during the time they are placed in special housing.  The government will decide whether to develop a guide for support and rehabilitation of children and young people who are victims of honor related violence or oppression. Support for the girls who seek There are girls who feel intense pressure to prove they have not had sexual intercourse before the wedding night. Therefore, looking for some help in clinical care. My starting point is that these girls need help and support but it is not the way to offer health care operations.  In order to assure the quality of the hospitality of these girls is the National Centre for women’s safety given the task of developing a manual for health care.

• National public awareness campaign. Children and young people should have knowledge of their rights and the ways in which authorities and NGOs are working to strengthen their rights.  The government will decide on a national information campaign targeted at young people in secondary schools in order to prevent and avoid exposure to violence and oppression.

There is more at the original Swedish site. Please click over and use whatever translation tools you prefer.

Eeyore

Ottawa man returns medal to Saudis to protest treatment of trapped woman

Posted on by

Below, a story about a true hero, and champion for justice.

From The Montreal Gazette:
By Jennifer Campbell, The Ottawa Citizen April 19, 2010

Mark Brousseau hopes some of his 700 shipmates will return their Liberation of Kuwait medals as well.

Mark Brousseau hopes some of his 700 shipmates will return their Liberation of Kuwait medals as well.

Photograph by: Bryanna Bradley, The Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — A retired naval officer from Ottawa is giving back a medal of honour in protest of the Saudi government’s treatment of a Canadian citizen.

And he hopes others will follow suit.

Mark Brousseau, who served on HMCS Athabaskan in the early 1990s during the first Gulf war, received the Liberation of Kuwait medal from the government of Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday morning, he’ll head to the Saudi embassy in Ottawa to return it to the ambassador to protest the country’s male guardianship system that has kept 24-year-old Canadian Nazia Quazi in the country against her will.

The Muslim woman, whose mother and brother live in Ottawa, went to Saudi three years ago to visit her father and to do the Umrah, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

But once she arrived, her father, whom she claims doesn’t approve of her boyfriend, took her travel documentation and identification and has refused to let her leave the country. In Saudi Arabia, the male guardianship system says that fathers must make decisions for their unmarried daughters. Quazi lives in housing provided by her employer, and says her father, whom she alleges has beaten her in the past, is becoming increasingly violent and abusive. MPs Paul Dewar and Bob Rae have called for action. Deepak Obhrai, minister of state for foreign affairs, says the government is in contact with Saudi officials, but can’t do much because of the country’s rules. Continue Reading →

Bride-Price in Berlin

Posted on by

Sunday, April 25, 2010

The Price is Right

by Baron Bodissey

“It is a scandal that the bartering of a girl can go unnoticed in the middle of Germany.”

Here’s the latest news from modern multicultural Germany. The article below is from Friday’s Der Spiegel, and was kindly translated for Gates of Vienna by JLH:

Bride-Price in Berlin

April 23, 2010

Interview by Anna Reiman

Without a Doubt, This Is Trade In Human Beings

Parents of Kurdish origin are said to have sold their 15-year-old daughter to the family of her future husband for €15,500. An active practice right in the middle of Germany, explains women’s rights expert Myria Böhmeke in a Spiegel-Online interview.

Spiegel: Mrs. Böhmeke, it is said that in Berlin, after the conclusion of the marriage contract, Kurdish parents sold their daughter, Jasmin, to the husband’s family for €15,500. Since then, the 15-year-old, who is pregnant, has separated from her husband. He is said to have beaten her. Is it an exception for Muslim families in Germany to pay a bride price?
Böhmeke: No, in my experience it is not unusual. Exact figures are difficult to develop, because the girls who are forced into marriage and register with “terre des femmes” often do not know whether money was paid or not. The groom’s family pays the money for, among other things, the loss of a worker in the family.
Spiegel: Can the bride price be of any use to the woman, if, for instance, she leaves her husband?
Böhmeke: Originally, the bride price was thought of as a security for the woman, in case of a separation. The women often bought jewelry with it. Since then, it has frequently benefited the family.
Spiegel: Berlin SPD politician, Bilkay Öney, claims to be shocked by Jasmin’s case. She says: “Buying a bride is taboo in Europe. I don’t care to think about anything like that. That doesn’t even exist in Turkey.” Is this a realistic judgment?
Böhmeke: Completely false. Forced marriages are still widespread in Turkey. And frequently money changes hands. Underage girls are often married, even though it is forbidden in Turkey as in Germany. In such cases, the marriage contract is executed in a religious framework. As soon as the girl is of age, the “official” marriage takes place. And payment does not just take place in the Islamic societies. There is also often a substantial money payment in India.
Spiegel: Jasmin’s family seems to be well integrated. Her father is with the fire department and her brother is a policeman. That seems to make the case so much more incomprehensible.
Böhmeke: No. There is not necessarily a connection between current indicators of integration and consciousness of women’s rights. It often happens that girls who call “terre des femmes” for help appear to be models of integration, speak perfect German, and go to school.

Continue Reading →

Yemeni child bride dies after intercourse

Posted on by

From The HeraldSun, Australia

Yemeni child bride dies of bleeding after intercourse

  • By AFP
  • From: NewsCore
  • April 08, 2010 8:24PM

A 13-year-old Yemeni girl who was forced into marriage died five days after her wedding when she suffered a rupture in her sex organs and hemorrhaging, a local rights organization said today. Ilham Mahdi al Assi died last Friday in a hospital in Yemen’s Hajja province, the Shaqaeq Arab Forum for Human Rights said in a statement quoting a medical report.

She was wedded the previous Monday in a traditional arrangement known as a “swap marriage,” in which the brother of the bride also married the sister of the groom, it said.

“The child Ilham has died as a martyr due to the abuse of children’s lives in Yemen,” the non-governmental organization said.

Her death was a “flagrant example” of the results of opposing the ban on child marriage in Yemen, which was leading to “killing child females,” it said.

The marriage of young girls is widespread in Yemen, which has a strong tribal structure.

The death of a 12-year-old girl in childbirth in September illustrated the case of the country’s “brides of death,” many of whom were married off even before puberty.

Controversy heightened in Yemen recently over a law banning child marriage in the impoverished country through setting a minimum age of 17 for women and 18 for men.

Thousands of conservative women demonstrated outside parliament last month, answering a call by Islamist parties opposing the law.

A lesser number of women rallied at the same venue a few days later in support of the law, the implementation of which was blocked pending a request by a group of politicians for a review.

An unwilling Afghan bride’s defiance leads to death

Posted on by

 Frashta didn’t want to marry her cousin, and she fled. In a land where tradition and family honor are everything, that sealed her doom.

Dal gazes at the unmarked grave of his niece outside Charikar, Afghanistan. "She kept saying, 'I can't marry my cousin. If my mother gives me away to anyone else, I will marry him,' " he said.

 LA TIMES… Reporting from Charikar, Afghanistan – A child of the provinces can never run far. She should have known this. Frashta, though, was headstrong. Two shots from a hunting rifle in the night, then they rolled her in cloth and tried to hide her, but some things cannot be hidden. She was found in the yard.

“A bad woman,” said the cop.

“So beautiful that no words could describe her face,” said her uncle.

No one had a photograph; a picture wouldn’t tell the story of who she was anyway. A young bride who betrayed her marriage for another man. Or a woman who spent her short life peering through the mesh of a burka until one day she defied family and tradition and ran away from home after refusing to wed her cousin. In this land, both are dark, dark sins.

What would end her life began when she was a few months old. Word came that her father, a mujahid, had been killed in a battle with Soviet troops in the late 1980s. As is custom, Frashta’s mother became the second wife of her husband’s brother, Abdul. To ensure clan harmony, a match was quickly arranged for Frashta: When the girl came of age she would marry Abdul’s son, her cousin. Continue Reading →

YEMEN: WOMEN MOBILISE FOR LAW ON ‘BABY BRIDES’

Posted on by

(ANSAmed) – BEIRUT, MARCH 23 – In Sanàa women are mobilising: h/t gates of vienna:

several hundred protested today in Yemen to support a law banning the marriage of girls under the age of 17. Just two days ago thousands protested against the same law. Underneath a burning sun and covered from head to toe in black niqabs, the demonstrators, who arrived in the city on about ten buses on Sunday, warned the parliamentary committee that will examine the text of the law in the coming month to reject it because, they chanted, “it is not permissible to ban what God allows”.

Supporting their view is also a ‘fatwa’ (religious legal pronouncement) stating that those who support the law are apostate. The fatwa was signed by a group of influential religious figures including Sheikh Abdul Majid al Zindani, who according to the U.S. was one of the spiritual teachers of Osama bin Laden. Today a response arrived: a rally organised by various groups for the defence of women’s rights in Yemen, many of which support the government. In reality, not many people were present at the event held in front of Parliament, but the group did include Nojoud Mohammad Ali, who has become a symbolic figure in the fight against forced marriages in Yemen.

Nojoud was forced to marry a 28-year-old man when she was eight, but in 2008 she reported her father to authorities and obtained a divorce. Many today also remembered Fawzia Abdallah Youssef, who died in September of last year due to a haemorrhage in the Saudi Arabian hospital of Hajja, north of Sanàa, while she was giving birth to a still-born baby at the age of 12, which she had with her husband, who she had married the year before. The practice of forced marriages in Yemen is well rooted and the law that intends to regulate them in reality was already approved in February last year, but was then blocked and sent to the parliamentary commission to be examined by a group of delegates who labelled it as anti-Islamic. According to a study by the Social Affairs Ministry, one-fourth of Yemenites marry before the age of 15. This is partly due to a tribal structure of society and widespread poverty, especially in rural areas, while religion also plays a fundamental role in the practice. (ANSAmed).
2010-03-23 19:28

video of protest against the ban:

“Stop violating Islamic sharia in the name of rights and freedoms!”

Posted on by

From The Ottawa Citizen

Yemen. Women protest ban on child marriages

Canwest News ServiceMarch 22, 2010 4:10 AM

Thousands of women demonstrated outside parliament Sunday to oppose legislation banning the marriage of girls under 17. The protesters held up banners proclaiming “don’t ban what Allah made permissible,” or “stop violating Islamic sharia law in the name of rights and freedoms.” Proposed amendments to the civil status law stalled in parliament last August after severe opposition to a government proposal that would ban girls under 17 and males under 18 from marrying. Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas, where girls as young as eight have been married off.

Muslim Child-brides in New Zealand

Posted on by

Thank you KitmanTV for posting this and sending me the link. This is New Zealand not Afghanistan yet Muslim girls are being forced by their families to marry their rapists.

Let me pause a moment to let that sink in…

Marry … their … rape … ist … in New Zealand…

Link: Child Brides NZ

Thanks to JDAMN for uploading this important video

Kuwaiti Goat Shagger “extremely Tired”

Posted on by

Man treated at hospital after having sex with animals in Kuwait

(file Photo)

The unnamed Asian watchman reportedly explained to his employer that he had been doing ”sexual things” to the animals

  • By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
  • Published: 17:07 March 13, 2010

“I was shocked during my last visit to the farm to see the watchman screaming in pain and I took him to the hospital in Farwaniya. There, doctors diagnosed him with a problem with his organ,” the farm owner was quoted as saying by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai on Saturday.

The unnamed watchman reportedly explained to his employer that he had been doing “sexual things” to the animals and that he may have contracted a dangerous disease. The farm owner said that the expatriate worker cried continiously and saying that he was “extremely tired.”

Readers’ comments on the internet ranged from sympathy for the lonely man to outrage for cruelty to animals. Many asked questions whether the animals were now fit for human consumption.

In 2006, a Sudanese man was forced to take a goat as his “wife”, after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The village council of elders ordered the man to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to the goat’s owner who had surprised him with his goat.

The elders said the man should not be taken to the police, but rather pay a dowry for the goat because he used it as his wife.

Goat bride(File photo: screen cap from the Kuwaiti hit film, ‘Goat Bride’. Sequel, ‘My Big Fat Goat Wedding’ to be released in the fall)

Editors note: You cannot accuse this particular Muslim of inbreeding at least… or…..

Muslims sponsor child brides, Canadian officials claim ‘little they can do’

Posted on by

From The Toronto Sun

Immigration: ‘Child bride’ loophole can’t be closed

By TOM GODFREY, QMI Agency

Last Updated: March 11, 2010 4:49pm

Federal immigration officials say there’s little they can do to stop “child brides” from being sponsored into Canada by much older husbands who wed them in arranged marriages abroad.Top immigration officials in Canada and Pakistan say all they can do is reject the sponsorships of husbands trying to bring their child-brides to Canada. The men have to reapply when the bride turns 16.

The marriages are permitted under Sharia Law.

Muslim men, who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, return to their homeland to wed a “child bride” in an arranged marriage in which a dowry is given to the girl’s parents.

Officials said some of the brides can be 14 years old or younger and many are forced to marry. The practice occurs in a host of countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Lebanon.

In classified documents, Canadian visa officer Steve Bulmer said he refused to allow one Pakistani man to sponsor his 15-year-old bride in August 2009.

“I can find no section (of law) that states the marriage is ‘invalid’ or ‘void,'” Bulmer wrote in e-mails obtained by lawyer Richard Kurland under Access of Information. “I am afraid the age does not invalidate the marriage even if it is illegal to marry.”

Abdul Hameed, of the Canadian embassy in Islamabad, said child marriages are not valid in Canada.

“A child marriage is punishable but it does not render the marriage invalid,” Hameed said. “We are refusing such application on grounds the marriage will not be valid as per Canadian laws.” William Hawke, of immigration’s Permanent Resident Unit, said the young brides won’t be allowed in Canada.

“Sponsorship applications submitted for a spouse under 16 will be refused,” Hawke said. “Once an underage spouse turns 16 they are a member of the family class” and can be sponsored.

He said the application is rejected if a spouse turns 16 during processing. Kurland said there’s little that can be done to stop Canadians from marrying child brides.

“A 15-year-old bride doesn’t void a marriage,” Kurland said on Thursday.

“The application is turned down and the person can reapply when his bride turns 16.”

He said the practice has been going on for years and “is a concrete loophole that can’t be fixed.”

Immigration officials quoting an Afghanistan Law of Marriages said in some countries it is “customary for young females to wed men considerably older, especially if the man is in a position of financial or social power.”

According to the law, it is not uncommon for marriages between first cousins or extended family members.

Sure women in Islam have equal rights. Equal to 3rd world farm animals.

Posted on by

Kitman TV once again has brought the real world video footage that we so desperately need to see. Despite the fantastical amount of this kind of documentary footage that has been taken, the average person on the street still thinks to speak of Islam as it actually is, remains a hate crime.

Feminists, university students who think that being on the left of the political spectrum puts you on the side of genuine human rights, I beg you, watch this, send it to your friends, and then think very carefully about who the real allies are for the fight to sustain liberal multilateral democracy. It is not the left. It is not Islam. Thanks again Kitman.

A small excerpt of the horrifying documentary “shackled Women” made by australian ABC
Info and availability visit: http://kitmantv.blogspot.com/2010/02/interesting-previews-shackled-women.html

12 year old Saudi girl fights to divorce 80 year old husband

Posted on by

From The Telegraph U.K.

Girl, 12, fighting to divorce 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia

A 12-year-old girl who wants to divorce her 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia will receive legal assistance from the government in what could become a test case for banning child marriage in the kingdom.

Published: 7:00AM GMT 09 Feb 2010

The state-run Human Rights Commission has hired a lawyer to represent the girl when she takes her case to court in Buraidah, a conservative town near the capital Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia, a patriarchal society that applies an austere version of Sunni Islam, has no minimum legal age for marriage. Fathers are granted guardianship over their daughters, giving them control over who their daughters marry and when. However, it is rare for a child bride to challenge the match.

A draft law prohibiting child marriage is under discussion and activists hope that the case will be a watershed in the campaign to ban the practice. Continue Reading →

A perversion of sexuality: the chronic abuse of Muslim women

Posted on by

From EuropeNews

Sexual abuse widespread among Muslims

HRS 5 February 2010
By Nicolai Sennels

Here we will dive into a dark and closed universe; a universe where women are forced to commit to lifelong sexual relationships with close family members, where abuse of women is seemingly extremely widespread, where girls and women are forced to hide their female beauty behind veils, long unflattering coats, burkas etc., where men are free to rape women, because women are often automatically seen as the ones at fault.

Rape and forced sexual relations
In the article ‘A Question of Honor’ in The Independent on February 10th 2009, British police were quoted estimating that nearly 17,000 women in Great Britain fall victim to honor related assaults, including rape and forced marriage, every year.

Vibe Klarup Voetmann, director of the Copenhagen women’s refuge Dannerhuset, said to the Danish daily Kristeligt Dagblad on the 11th of June 2008 that 70 percent of the nearly 1.400 women who contact the centre each year come from a Middle-Eastern background. As ‘Dannerhuset’ is just one of 40 women’s refuges in Denmark, there is reason to fear that the number of Muslim women who seek shelter or counseling due to forced marriages, domestic violence or sexual abuse, is actually much higher. It is also worth taking into consideration the fact that many Muslim women keep quiet about assaults out of fear of retaliation from the family. Thus, in Denmark alone, the number of Muslim women who are abused each year is likely to exceed several thousand.

Where is the honor in raping a woman or forcing her to marry a man she does not love? Continue Reading →

Man murders wife with her own veil for being ‘too Australian’

Posted on by

Soltan Ahmid Azizi told his wife she was nothing but a slave to him with no rights and her sole purpose was to have babies and raise children. Marzeih Rahimi a victim of forced marriage who had endured abuse and was trying to escape, was found strangled to death in the family home.  Her young children who were unharmed, sat next to her.

From The Australian Herald Sun, courtesy TROP

Court hears that Afghan man strangled his wife after complaining she was ‘becoming Australian’

AN Afghan man strangled his wife with her veil after complaining she was “becoming Australian”, a jury has heard.

Mother of five Marzieh Rahimi, who was said to be trying to escape a violent arranged marriage, was killed in front of her baby and toddler.

Soltan Ahmad Azizi, 45, has pleaded not guilty to her murder at their Hampton Park home in November 2007.

The Supreme Court heard yesterday that Ms Rahimi, 33, had told social workers her husband had branded her a slave with no rights.

Prosecutor Peter Rose, SC, told the jury Ms Rahimi had complained her husband punched her and said her only purpose was to have babies and raise children.

Ms Rahimi, who spoke little English and communicated through an interpreter, had told a family violence officer and a health worker that she wanted to leave the marriage, but that she felt powerless, unsupported and fearful.

In his opening address, Mr Rose told jurors that when Mr Azizi learned she’d talked to outsiders he told her she was shaming him and must stop.

“I’ll kill you because I can’t carry the shame,” he allegedly said when she spoke of separation or divorce.

The jury heard that about a week before his wife’s death, Mr Azizi complained to his sister-in-law that she was “becoming Australian and had changed her religion”.

The cousins wed in an arranged marriage and came to Australia as refugees in 2005. Their eldest children were aged 11, nine and six.

Mr Azizi told police he didn’t plan to kill Ms Rahimi. He said he punched her, then “choked her with her veil”; he then rang 000, telling the operator, “I killed my wife … come see. You come. My kids are only little.”

Police found Ms Rahimi on the floor with her baby, three months, and toddler, 22 months, nearby.

“I’m ready for the handcuffs,” he allegedly told them.

Defence lawyer Stratton Langslow urged the jury to consider whether Ms Rahimi’s claims of domestic violence were prompted by post-natal depression.

He said they should examine the source of the abuse complaints and whether there was any independent evidence of ill-treatment.

Mr Langslow said Mr Azizi admitted killing his wife, but the issue was whether he’d meant to.

The jury heard that after one incident, in which she said Mr Azizi repeatedly punched her, she locked herself in a room for several days with her youngest children. He then began to treat her better, she’d said.

The trial, before Justice Betty King, is continuing.