Hansard

It is incumbent on us all when we talk about forced marriage to keep making the point that it bears absolutely no relation to arranged marriage. We in the chamber may not need to hear that over and over again, but there are people out there who believe that those practices are one and the same thing. That is a problem because it shows a lack of understanding of the perfectly legitimate practice of arranged marriages, but more important is that it undermines the seriousness of forced marriage.

We need to get the point across that forced marriage is completely against the will of at least one of the marriage partners, and that it is recognised in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a contemporary form of slavery, trafficking and sexual exploitation. It is serious stuff: as Elaine Smith said, it is not cultural, but a form of abuse, and the bill helps to make it stand out as such.

I was surprised to learn that there is at present no law in Scotland that expressly prohibits forced marriage, and that it is not a specific criminal offence. In March 2007, as Mary Mulligan said, the UK Government decided to support a private members’ bill on forced marriage. The bill will introduce to Scotland broadly similar provisions.

Of crucial importance is the provision in the bill for local authorities and the Lord Advocate to be able to apply on behalf of a victim for a forced marriage protection order. That is important in cases in which the victim is unable or unwilling to take action themselves. Given that families of victims are often involved in organising a forced marriage, it must be a terrifying prospect for an individual to decide to ask for help, knowing that they will lose their families altogether.

Not everyone is as brave as my constituent, who I will call Nina. Nina is 20 years old and, considering her frightening childhood, given the fact that she no longer has any family support and taking into account that she is on her own many miles from everyone she has ever known, she does remarkably well. At the age of 15, she ran away to avoid being taken overseas to marry a man in his 50s. When her parents found her, they locked her in her bedroom and starved her for a week to teach her a lesson. She managed to get away again, but it is likely that the fear of them finding her and the loneliness of being completely isolated from her entire family and all her friends will never leave her.

I was interested to read the submissions to the Equal Opportunities Committee’s investigation into the bill. Many groups, including Shakti Women’s Aid, Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid and Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland, called for work to be done to bring about a shift in social attitudes.

We must not forget that simply telling people that we do not approve is not the most effective deterrent in the long term. The most effective deterrent is to demonstrate the terrible harm that the practice does to individuals and their families. We must keep in mind that a shift in attitude is needed, but that will not happen overnight, nor will it happen simply as a result of the bill.

BEMIS expressed concerns that tackling the issue could

“foster culture stereotyping and antagonism against some groups.”

That is a valid concern, and a reminder that the issue will be used by some people to further their racist views.

When we talk about the issue, and when we legislate, we must be careful about how we articulate our arguments. We should acknowledge that forced marriage happens in all communities, and that it is not simply about religion or race. Indeed, we are hearing about more cases in which someone is forced into marriage to care for a physically or mentally disabled spouse.

We should be clear that it is very rare, in whichever community it happens. There will be cases of which we are unaware, but in 2009 we were aware of 40 incidents of forced marriage in Scotland. It is relatively rare, but each of those 40 people deserves our protection, if that is what they want. For those 40 in 2009, for the many in the years before and for all those who are too frightened or too resigned to their fate to tell someone, the bill says that it is not all right, and that we recognise their right to consent to marriage or not, if it is not what they want to do.

I commend the bill at stage 1.

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