northern rock foundation University of BRISTOL Forced Marriage and Domestic Violence among South Asian Communities in North East England Dr. Geetanjali Gangoli, Amina Razak Dr. Melanie McCarry School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol and Northern Rock Foundation June 2006
TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 1: Introduction 3 1.1: Background and Current Debates 3 1.2: Methodology 4 Section 2: Service Provision 6 2.1: Domestic Violence Service Provision in Sunderland 6 2.2: Forced Marriage Service Provision 6 2.3 Conclusions 9 Section 3: Experience of Marriage 9 3.1: Women in Marriages 9 3.2: Men in Marriages 16 Section 4: Expectations of Marriage 21 4.1: Young People 21 4.2: Single Women 24 4.3: Single Men 27 Section 5: Community Leaders 30 5.1 Sikh Community 30 5.2: Muslim Community 31 5.3: Suggestions for Change And Conclusions 32 Section 6: Conclusions, Recommendations and Future Research 32 6.1: Conclusions And Recommendations 33 2
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION1 This study looks at forced marriages and domestic violence within South Asian communities in Newcastle, Sunderland and South Tyneside, and examines the following research questions: Ā· Experiences, hopes and perceptions of marriage among South Asian women and men. Ā· Experiences of domestic violence in arranged, forced and love marriages, and links between forced marriage and domestic violence. Ā· Identification of areas for positive development for agencies and organisations. The report is divided into six sections2. The first section will place our report in the context of current debates on the subject, and explain our methodology. Section 2 concentrates on the mapping and assessment of domestic violence services for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Sunderland and forced marriage services in Sunderland, Newcastle and South Tyneside. Section 3 examines the experiences of married women and men. Section 4 analyses the experiences and expectations of single women and men and young people. Section 5 examines the views of community leaders. Section 6 concludes the report by drawing out recommendations for action and research from this study and points to gaps in services and knowledge. 1.1: BACKGROUND AND CURRENT DEBATES The issue of forced marriage is one that is of both national and international interest and focus (FCO, DoH et al., 2003; Schmidt and Jakobsen, 2004; Home Office, 2006). In the UK, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) commissioned a study on forced marriage in 2000, where a distinction is made between arranged and forced marriage, and a forced marriage is defined as a marriage where one or both parties do not consent freely to the marriage; entry into such a marriage is accompanied by physical, mental and/or emotional duress and coercion from family members. In contrast, an arranged marriage is where the family arranges the marriage, but both parties give their free and full consent (Uddin and Ahmed, 2000). Existing research indicates some of the complex interplay and differences between forced and consensual arranged marriages (Shan, 1991). However, some literature points out that the differences between arranged and forced marriages can sometimes be fuzzy and inchoate (Caroll, 1998). The prevention of forced