Health and Social Care Impact of Forced Marriage on South Asian Women

This report investigates the social impact of forced marriage on South Asian women in the United Kingdom. The study addresses the research question: "the impact of forced marriage on the social lives of South Asian Women living in the United Kingdom". The research employs secondary data collection methods, drawing from journals, books, and websites. Key findings highlight that forced marriage leads to social isolation, low social status, and limited educational development. The report discusses cases and suggests solutions such as educating women and families, and training health and social care specialists to support victims. The structure includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusions, providing a comprehensive analysis of the issue and recommendations for improvement. The research also explores the differences between forced and arranged marriages, the prevalence of forced marriages in the UK, and the challenges faced by victims.

Health and Social Care
Impact of Forced Marriage on South Asian Women
2-1-2020

Abstract
The intent behind presenting this study is to find the solution to the research question i.e.
“the impact of forced marriage on the social lives of South Asian Women living in the United
Kingdom” which has yet not been studied in detail in comparison to the emotional and
physical impact of forced marriage. Forced marriage is a marriage in which the free consent
of the involved parties is not taken which leads to domestic violence. The situation of Forced
marriage in the United Kingdom is very crucial as it is impacting the lives of South Asian
women. To identify the data in detail, the researcher has used a secondary method of data
collection from different sources like a journal, books, websites, etc. As per the analysis, the
key findings of the research paper have highlighted that the social impact of forced marriage
leads to social isolation, low social status, and limited educational development. Women
suffering in a forced marriage deal with different challenging situations and some of the
cases have also been discussed below in the file. But, the cases of forced marriage can be
reduced in a number of adopting diverse ways such that women trapped in these marriages
can come out and take a step against their violent partner. The findings of the paper have
also presented some of the ways that can be adopted to overcome this issue that is
educating the South Asian Women and their families to avoid these situations. In addition to
this, health and social care specialists also needs to be trained about the way guidance and
support to be provided to the victims of forced marriage.

Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 4
Research Title..................................................................................................................... 4
Research Background........................................................................................................4
Research Aim and Objective..............................................................................................4
Research Question.............................................................................................................5
Outline of Research Structure.............................................................................................5
Introduction..................................................................................................................... 5
Literature Review............................................................................................................ 5
Research Methodology...................................................................................................6
Findings and Discussion.................................................................................................6
Conclusions and Recommendations...............................................................................6
Literature Review................................................................................................................ 6
Research Methodology........................................................................................................13
Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 13
Research Philosophy........................................................................................................13
Research Approach..........................................................................................................13
Research Design.............................................................................................................. 14
Research Purpose............................................................................................................ 14
Research Strategy............................................................................................................ 14
Data Collection Method.....................................................................................................15
Sampling........................................................................................................................... 15
Data Analysis.................................................................................................................... 16
Ethical Consideration........................................................................................................17
Research Limitations........................................................................................................17
Summary.............................................................................................................................. 17
Findings................................................................................................................................ 18
Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 18
Forced Marriage............................................................................................................... 18
Theme 1- Addressing Social Isolation...............................................................................19
Theme 2- Limited Educational Development....................................................................19
Theme 3- Low Women Empowerment and Social Status.................................................20
Theme 4- Ways of Improving the Life of South Asian Women in United Kingdom............20
Discussion............................................................................................................................ 21
Concept of Forced Marriage.............................................................................................21
Theme 1........................................................................................................................... 22

Theme 2........................................................................................................................... 22
Theme 3........................................................................................................................... 22
Theme 4........................................................................................................................... 23
Summary.............................................................................................................................. 23
Conclusion and Suggestion..................................................................................................23
References........................................................................................................................... 25

Introduction
Research Title
“Impact of Forced Marriage on the Social Life of Asian Women in the United Kingdom”
Research Background
Britain is called to be comprised of a multicultural society, with different ethnic groups. In the
year 2011, the major ethnic group that was considered to be a minority group was the South
Asian community. This term was provided by Marshall and Yazdani (1999) which means
people from the family of the culture of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan (Craig,
2007). The practices of arranged marriage are considered to be the norm in collectivist
societies, which are still followed in Britain. It is not just followed in the communities of South
Asia but also in the non-Asian countries, which represents that around half of the population
in the world believe or follow the concept of arranged marriage (Mishra and Kumar, 2014).
There is a thick thread that raises the difference between arranged marriage and forced
marriages. Many of the researchers have studied the physical and psychological impact of
Forced Marriages on women. But there is limited research conducted on the impact of forced
marriage on the social life of women. This study will throw light on the impact of forced
marriage on the social life of women and especially on the life of Asian women in the United
Kingdom. The forced marriage victims may face a high level of psychological and physical
abuse in the form of domestic violence, emotional abuse, etc. But these victims also deal
with some of the social issues such as low women empowerment, leaving education at an
early age, societal pressure, isolated from the society, verbal defamation and humiliation as
the form of pressure. The major motive of this study is to discuss in detail the social impact
on the life of Asian women due to forced marriages and what ways they can adopt to
improve their life.

Research Aim and Objective
This research aims to discover the forced marriage impact on Asian women’s social life in
the United Kingdom by examining the findings of different authors presented in their studies
where they have paid close attention to the experience of Asian women in forced marriages.
Hence, in order to meet this aim first, the focus is moved towards comprehending the
understanding of the concept of forced marriage in UK. After this, the objective of the study
is to identify the impact of forced marriage on the social life of Asian women in the United
Kingdom and suggesting ways that can contribute to improving the lives of these women.
Research Question
The research question that has been emerged in order to understand the topic in detail are:
 What is the concept of Forced Marriage in the United Kingdom?
 How forced marriage impacts the social life of Asian Women in the United Kingdom?
 What are the ways that can contribute to improving the life of Asian Women involved
in Forced Marriage in the United Kingdom?
Outline of Research Structure
Introduction
The introduction is said to be a very important part of the academic work as it provides the
details in relation to diverse aspects of the thesis that is research topic background, review
of the current knowledge, presents the gaps in the knowledge and present how it is
suggesting ways to fill the identified gaps.
Literature Review
The literature review is considered to be an important aspect because it evaluates the
previous studies conducted on the research topic and this also provides the solutions to the
questions presented in the research question section (Ramdhani, Ramdhani, and Amin,
2014). The literature review in this thesis is presenting different themes in relation to the
research topic.

Research Methodology
This section of the thesis is considered to be easy to present as it is concerned about
outlining the methods that the researcher chose and why they have been chosen and how
they will help in getting the required results (Derntl, 2014).
Findings and Discussion
This section of the research presents what all have been founded in the study related to the
research questions. The findings section also called to present the facts of the research. In
addition to this, the discussion sections include the comments on the results identified,
explaining in detail the results and interpretation of the results in a broader manner
(Wallwork, 2016).
Conclusions and Recommendations
The conclusion section is important as here the major emphasis is given to the achievement
of the research aim and objective. Besides this, the emphasis is also given to the main
results of the thesis, highlighting the limitations and presenting the suggestions for future
studies (Mackey and Gass, 2013).
Literature Review
The literature review chapter of the thesis represents the secondary data in consideration to
the research topic. In this chapter, the researcher identifies the reviews and results of
different authors on the research topic and accordingly answer the research question
(Bolderston, 2008). This section is very important for this thesis as it is presenting different
aspects of forced marriage in the UK and also the ways that can be used to overcome the
problems faced by the South Asian Women in the country.
Forced Marriage in the United Kingdom
In the year 2000, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom conducted
research that presented a variation between forced marriage and arranged marriage
(Grierson, 2019). This organization-defined that in the forced marriage there is not free

consent of the involved parties for the marriage and getting involved in this type of marriage
is accompanied by emotional, mental, social, and physical pressure and force from the
family members (Grierson, 2019). Whereas, in an arranged marriage the members of the
family fix the wedding but with the free consent of both the parties (Grierson, 2019). Current
research studies have revealed that there are complex differences and interplay between
both types of marriages. However, there are times when the literature has revealed that the
difference between both marriages can be fuzzy and inchoate. According to Forced &
Commonwealth Office (2019), in the case of the United Kingdom, honour crimes and forced
marriage are termed to be the media magnet. Dramatic reports of kidnappings and ruthless
killings of women belonging from the Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu communities by their family
members have distressed and annoyed the greater British population and portends to
generate a criticism against the communities' lie in the minority in their midst (An-Na'im and
Candler, 2019).
The provocative and concealed nature of the forced marriage results in making the incidence
statistics very tough to compile. According to the conservative estimations proposed by An-
Na'im and Candler, (2019), reveals that around 1,000 women in the United Kingdom on the
yearly basis are involved in the forced marriage that is either in the country or at the time of
visit to Pakistan, Bangladesh, or India during their vacations or visiting their sick relative.
Until recently, the officers of the UK are unwilling to get involved in cultural or family matters.
According to the reports of Khomami (2018), there were around 1200 cases of forced
marriages highlighted by the specialist service in the year 2017. Out of 1200, around 1196
cases were managed by the Force Marriage Unit UK and from which more than a quarter of
victims were below 18 years (Khomami, 2018).
The major reason for the forced marriage in the country is the need of people to get the
membership of the country. According to Sabbe, Temmerman, Brems and Leye, (2014),
most of the time forced marriage to persons are called to be a mechanism to get an
additional entry of an extended family member in the United Kingdom. This is not just the

way to tie two people of a different culture but also augment the chances to increase the
demography of specific communities in the receiving nation (Plan UK, 2013). But, at the
same time, having the nationality of two countries for the women (i.e. the British and sending
nation such as Pakistan and India) exposes them to different claims of authority by the
sending nation, deprived of the consistent guard of being a citizen of British. Pakistan
authorities do not get involved in identifying the dual citizenship of those women who are
involved in the formed marriage. On the other side, in the case of India, the authorities of the
country do recognize the dual citizenship of these women, but the British officers are
unwilling to get involved in these cases (Symington, 2001). Therefore, as per the migration
rule of the UK, they offer incentives to the victims of the forced marriage but fail in offering
required protection for the women with dual citizenship in the country.
Cases of Forced Marriage in the UK
In a recent case that took place in May 2018, the Birmingham Crown Court jury imprisoned a
mother for illegally forcing her own daughter to move to Pakistan for marriage with a man
twice of her age as the first case of this type in the United Kingdom (BBC News, 2018). At
the age of 13, the teenage girl was raped but afterward, her mother convinced her to move
to go to Pakistan for the sake of vacation by bribing her with a mobile phone. Later, after her
arrival in Pakistan the teenage girl’s mother exposed her plan and forced her to marry one of
her older male relatives. Now when the girl is 19 years old, she protested against her mother
by saying that her mother threatened and assaulted her (Andonian, 2018).
In addition to this, there was another case in the year 2019 on 16 July, a British woman was
reported to escape from a forced marriage by after raising her voice to the Border Force
officer. This woman was bold and therefore she was able to raise the voice in front of the
authorities (ITV, 2019).
Impact of forced marriage on the social life of Asian Women

In the United Kingdom, forced marriage is considered to be illegal since 2014 (BBC, 2018).
Here the meaning of forced marriage is that a person is taking another person along with
him abroad or to the UK with the aim of getting married. But still, according to the reports of
BBC News, it is believed that in England there is one on out of 30 suspected cases of forced
marriages get involved in the prosecution, and this reveals that there are number of cases
that are yet not been identified or detected by the authorities (BBC, 2018). It has been
believed by the Refuge Domestic Violence Services, major cases of forced marriage are
reported to involve South Asian women from continents like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India
(Refuge, 2020). It can also be observed in the below-given graph related to the data for
forced marriage reported to Forced Marriage United in the UK.
Source [(Refuge, 2020)]
Forced Marriage in the United Kingdom has resulted in a huge impact on the life of South
Asian Women. These marriages have led to physical, mental, health, and social impact on
their life (BBC, 2018). Some of the impacts of forced marriage on the social life of South
Asian women are discussed below.
Theme 1- Addressing Social Isolation
According to Matlabi (2013), young people who are pressurized to get involved in forced
marriage most of the time get apart from their close ones that are family. There are
situations when they get into a cycle of abuse with major consequences such as suicide and

self-harm. There are numerous cases in which South Asian Women are forced into a
marriage deal with a different kind of Domestic abuse. These South Asian women are many
times unable to get out of these marriages due to economic pressure, economic pressure,
etc. (Davies and Davies, 2011). Isolation is considered to be the major issue that is being
faced by South Asian women in the forced marriage (Sheffield Children Safeguarding
Partnership, 2018). Most of the time there is a feeling that they do not have any close one to
talk as they stay in the Asian country and the victim lives in the UK.
Theme 2- Limited Educational Development
In the present quick developing society, education is considered to be important for the
personal development of every individual and especially for the women’s lifecycle.
Marphatia, Ambale and Reid, (2017), stated that generally, women in the South Asian
communities are provided with the choices between their education and other opportunities
like a marriage which means leaving school or education. As per the estimations presented
by the Matlab Health and Socioeconomic Survey conducted on >2000 women in
Bangladesh lie under the age group of 25-44 yeas confirms this, which also showed that an
additional delay in the marriage will rise their schooling by 0.22 year (Marphatia, Ambale and
Reid, 2017). However, in the forced marriage victims get very fewer opportunities for their
educational development and due to which they end up with no or limited career choices. As
per the views of Myers and Harvey, (2011), Forced Marriages has majorly impacted the
educational life of women and girls. They are the ones who drop their school during before
marriage preparatory period which negatively influences their capability to access the
educational benefits.
Theme 3- Low Women Empowerment and Social Status
Together, lack of education and forced marriage results in low empowerment for men and
low social status. This is because husbands and other in-laws of the victims most of the time
get involved in controlling her life who is less educated. According to Marphatia, Ambale and

Reid, (2017), domestic violence is also considered to be a major aspect of low
empowerment because South Asian Women are low with the ability to refute and resist due
to lack of family support. Along with this, forced marriage has resulted in impacting the social
status of South Asian Women as they belong from South Asia and moved to the UK after
marriage which impacts their education and reduces their interaction with society (Gangoli
and McCarry, 2009).
Forced Marriage Act of 2007
Forced Marriage Act 2007 works for supporting the forced marriage victims, or people who
are majorly threatened with the forced marriage, by offering civil medications (BBC, 2014).
This act has been extended to Wales and England and also Northern Ireland. Under this act,
forcing anyone to get married is considered to be a criminal as well as civil crime and due to
which defence orders under the forced marriage can be issued by the victim herself or
himself, their friends, or by the local authorities in order to stop these activities. Under this
law, the person who will be identified to convince or force any person for the marriage can
be jailed for around 2 years (Gov. UK, 2019). South Asian Women who are being influenced
to involve in the forced marriage or are already dragged in such things then she can take the
support of the authorities and under the Forced Marriage act 2007, she can demand justice
and who are forcing her can be sent to jail (Rhys, 2009).
Theme 4- Ways of Improving the Life of South Asian Women
There are several documents that have been published by the Home Office, Department of
Health, and Foreign and Commonwealth office, regarding the guideline for the police
department and social and health care professionals about the best possible way to face the
challenges and react against forced marriage (Revill and Asthana, 2008). But there is always
a question that there are how many professionals in the country who are aware of these
guidelines and follow it. While several attempts have been made by the use of media and
conferences for highlighting the harshness of this issue, there is yet a long way to see real