Child Marriage or Forced Marriage? South Asian Communities in North East England

Abstract

This article addresses the links between child marriage and forced marriage in the UK, drawing from a research study on South Asian communities in North East England. It looks at definitional issues through an analysis of UK and South Asian policies. It also analyses how these concepts are understood by service providers, survivors of child marriage and young people from South Asian communities. Finally, concepts such as gender, age, familial and community control reflected in normative marriage practices are addressed.

The issue of forced marriage is of both national and international interest and focus (Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department of Health, 2003;Phillips and Dustin, 2004). While there is evidence that forced marriage can happen to women and men of any ages (Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office, 2005) and from a range of communities and contexts including (but not restricted to) African, Bangladeshi, British native aristocratic families, Chinese, Eastern European, Indian, Iranian, Moroccan, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, travellers and gypsies, and Turkish communities (Hester and others, 2008), this article will focus on South Asian communities and child marriage. Child marriage has been defined as marriage before the age of 16, and is conceptualised in law and policy as a form of forced marriage (Forum on Marriage and the Rights of Women and Girls, 2000, c.f., Bunting, 2005). Based on a research study funded by the Northern Rock Foundation in North East England that looked at forced marriages and domestic violence within South Asian communities, this article will address: the links between forced marriage and child marriage; perceptions, experiences and effects of child marriage; and the gendered nature of child marriage.

This paper will address how child marriage and forced marriage is defined in the UK and reflected in South Asian policies. We will then analyse these policies to address analysing difficulties of reconciling forced marriage with child marriage. It will then analyse how the concepts of child marriage and forced marriage are understood by service providers, survivors of child marriage, and young people from South Asian communities. Finally, concepts such as age, familial and community control and their implications for normative marriage practices will be addressed with regard to South Asian communities in the UK. It is recognised that social class can be an important factor in understanding differences or similarities on marriage, this paper does not directly address this, partly due to the nature in which the data was collected.