Forced marriages event in Wales
Safeguarding victims: Prevention and Protection in Practice
Forced Marriage & ‘Honour’ Crimes
FREE Conference Open to Public & Voluntary Sector
Service Providers & Community Activists
Tuesday 17th March 2009 at City Hall, Cardiff, Wales.
SAFEGUARDING VICTIMS : PREVENTION & PROTECTION IN PRACTICE FORCED MARRIAGE & ‘HONOUR’ CRIMES
International Women’s Day conference 2009 is themed around prevention and protection of Forced Marriage & ‘Honour’ based violence. Henna Foundation will launch the National on-line Forced Marriage & ‘Honour’ Based Violence Directory & Toolkit, a project funded by the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC). In November 2008, Ministry of Justice launched the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 and the Forced Marriage Statutory Guidance – with this came legal obligations upon public services and those commissioned to deliver services on their behalf, to ensure that all the necessary checks and balances are in place to ensure that victims and potential victims from Forced Marriage are protected from harm.
The conference programme will focus on delivering an interactive knowledge gaining experience where attending delegates will gain practical awareness and knowledge from professionals who have made use of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 to safeguard victims. Families of ethnic minority backgrounds are not a homogenous group and vary in degree of how they socially operate and integrate with the wider British society. Familial functions of some ethnic minority communities are led by indefensible notions of honour (izzat) and shame (sharam) and controlled by patriarchal traditions where gender specific roles and expectations regulate how families should live their lives.
While families are committed and dedicated to working hard to care and provide for their families, there are equally a minority steadfast in ensuring their family status remains ‘honourably’ upheld and respected. When traditional conventions of family ‘honour’ codes’ are at risk of being compromised, this can lead to tension within families, and in extreme cases spill over into honour based violence, forced marriages, abandoned wives, child abduction to forced imprisonment isolation, depression, loneliness and withdrawal. In worst-case scenarios, matters can further escalate causing significant risk, harm and even loss of life.
Victims of honour-based violence are like the families they come from, emotionally bound (socially conditioned to accept it as a social norm) to the practice of ‘honour’. Their minds work around perception and what ‘others’ will think of them and often so overwhelmed with the guilt factors of ‘honour’ and shame, they internalise, even downplay the risks they face. Self-priority to safeguard their lives becomes secondary. Victims and families tormented at the hands of this practice need to believe that gender rights are God given human rights and be made aware that suffering the wrath of ‘honour’ abuse and violence in the familial home is unlawful, a crime and “not their shame”.
CONFERENCE OBJ ECTIVES & BENEFITS OF ATTENDING
Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007: The protection in practice
Launch of the on-line Forced Marriage & HBV directory & toolkit
Increasing trust & confidence of victims at risk of Forced Marriage & HBV
Boost knowledge capacity & confidence of practitioners & support workers in the case handling of forced marriages and ‘Honour’ abuse
Present best practice methods to improve current work practices and services to adequately protect victims from Forced Marriage and Honour’ related abuse and violence.
Solutions focus; early intervention & prevention; Bridging the communication & generational gap between parents & young people
Networking, information sharing, widening access & directory of services; delegates will have the opportunity to exchange discussions with internationally recognised professionals and champions in this field.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Front line Practitioners and Policy Officers;
Cardiff Council staff, managers and elected members;
Government and Local Authority departments;
Police, CPS, Community Safety Officers, Domestic Violence Officers, Youth
Offending Services, Probation Officers;
Health & Social Care staff: social workers, health visitors, midwives, family liaisons, counselling services and other health workers. Education; Primary & secondary school Head teachers, University & Higher Education staff, Youth workers, Welfare education officers;
Voluntary and Community Sector; Women’s Aid, Refuge services, Children & family services (inc faith groups & institutes);
Law agencies (Inc Magistrates, Judges, Court workers, Solicitors, Barristers and Registrars).
CONDITIONS
Delegate Fees: This event is FREE.
All delegates are required to complete registration form.
Places are limited; allocations will be made on a first come first served basis
Please note this event is FREE; but registered non-attendees will be charged £60.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Equalities Team
Cardiff Council
Room 356
County Hall
Atlantic Wharf
Cardiff
CF10 4UW
Email: hbvconference@cardiff.gov.uk
Tel: Henna Foundation (029) 2049 8600 / (029) 2049 6920
| Post to del.icio.us |
Filed in: Events
‘integrate with wider British society’
Code words encouraging marriage outside ones community? If so, bit Imperialistic, no?
A better location to have the event;
– London
– Luton
– Slough
– Leicster
– Birmingham
– Coventry
– Nottingham
– Derby
– Manchester
– Oldham
– Blackburn
– Leeds
– Shefield
– Bradford
Why Cardiff?
Why Cardiff?
Because conferences usually need moving spirits to organize them, and in this case, it seems that the prime mover is based in Cardiff: the Henna Foundation (with a completely non-functional website, don’t bother) run by one Shahien Taj, according to this.
Why Cardiff? It’s a British city. And I hope it’s going to be in Welsh, or at least bilingual.
I don’t mean to be rude, but I think your title for this post could be slightly misconstrued….
LOL!
(laughing at post 6 that is. Not about forced marriages)
gender rights are God given human rights
Hmm. Not sure that is the best authority to rely on.
No, it’s just referring to the extent to which they generally interact with people outside their own respective communities and (more to the point) how much their own behaviour and attitudes are in line with accepted norms within mainstream British society as a whole.
Good points number 4 & 5. I was simply going along the lines of it might be more worthwhile having the conference, closer to the problem, (Stoke on trent is a hiotbed apparently).
*cuts this out and puts it on the Paranoid Conspiracy Theories wall*
How on earth is that imperialist?? All people in this country should feel able to marry who the hell they want without some village elder mindset holding them back.
Jai (8) – ‘No, it’s just referring to the extent to which they generally interact with people outside their own respective communities and (more to the point) how much their own behaviour and attitudes are in line with accepted norms within mainstream British society as a whole.’
Absolutely spot on – what you are describing could more or less be termed civil society, essential to both integration and democracy. Quite how anyone could see that as imperialist is beyond me.
I attended Shahien’s conference last year: it was most excellently organised with experienced speakers including Nazir Azfal, Wayne from the FMU and Jagdeesh Singh. While the speeches were in English last year all Powerpoints/slides were translated to Welsh and distributed to the attendees (is that OK Trofim?)
There is a genuine problem with FM & HBV in Wales. While the typical valley towns are still fairly homogenous, cities like Newport, Cardiff and Swansea definitely have problems and only Henna and BAWSO are available to provide specialist support.
Why Cardiff?
For one thing, Cardiff, as an old Imperial coal port, has sizable Somali and Yemeni communities:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/cardiff/pages/somalis.shtml
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/focuson/islamintheuk/index.html
ashik (post number 1)
”‘integrate with wider British society’
Code words encouraging marriage outside ones community? If so, bit Imperialistic, no?”
Yes, but does a society like that new EU country of Slovenia have the right to be ”picky” about who the new migrants to that country of only two million are?
Whether they have a new British (or Australian) points based system of entry – or whether they tried to fill labour shortages like Britain has done in the past, and imported the likes of ”cousin marrying Mirpuri males” to come over and take factory jobs?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4442010.stm
”Mrs Cryer’s constituency is in the Bradford area, where the rates of cousin marriage are well above the national average. It is estimated that three out of four marriages within Bradford’s Pakistani community are between first cousins.
The practice remains so popular because the community believes there are real benefits to marrying in the family. Many British Pakistanis celebrate cousin marriage because it is thought to generate more stable relationships.”
I know the easiest thing to do here is for some people to say ”bigot” to me.
But this made me laugh. From Trofim:
”Why Cardiff? It’s a British city. And I hope it’s going to be in Welsh, or at least bilingual.”
Why? Who here understands Welsh? How many people of South Asian origin in Britain know Welsh before they know English? (About o% I’d say).
Damn Sunny, you cheat me with your headline. I was thinking it may be worth a trip to Wales if I can guarantee myself a wife … and then I kept reading.
: (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/cardiff/pages/somalis.shtml
“Equality means sometimes treating people differently in order for them to be equal.”
Rhagorol !
Didn’t George Orwell write that?
Ashik
“Code words encouraging marriage outside ones community? If so, bit Imperialistic, no?”
Leon
“How on earth is that imperialist?? All people in this country should feel able to marry who the hell they want without some village elder mindset holding them back.”
Here here. Ashik what do you mean by outside ones community? The Asian (and other) Muslim community in this country are shockingly backward, insular and unislamic when it comes to accepting marriages from even Muslims of another race. Bengalis wont let their kids marry Pakistanis and vice versa, Gujratis wont marry Punjabis, Asians wont let their children marry black MUSLIMS etc etc. This is a disgrace and a slander on the religion.
Jai
” and (more to the point) how much their own behaviour and attitudes are in line with accepted norms within mainstream British society as a whole.”
THAT sounds pretty imperialistic to me -implying that mainstream British society is some yardstick of moral greatness everyone must aspire to and that all non-whites are barbarians who all honor kill their kids and have nothing worth preserving or learning from in tehir culture. Im not the biggest fan of Asian culture but certain things in the culture are better than some of the “accepted norms” or British society – such as not getting pissed and sleeping around, looking after your folks rather than putting them in a home, not living a live of totally selfish individualism without recourse to your family etc.
Of course these were traditional British values.
And many things in British culture are better than Asian culture such as the efficiency , lack of corruption, politeness etc
The best solution is to combine both
Reasons,
Mixed marriages within the Asian population and with non-Asians aren’t anywhere near as rare as they used to be — at least for Indians (I can’t speak for Pakistanis etc). Both Gujaratis and Punjabis marrying each other (or people from other Indian backgrounds) isn’t exactly unknown these days either, even if broadly speaking the majority of people in these groups do marry spouses from the same background as themselves. Furthermore, the most recent census indicated that about 10% of Indians in the UK have a non-Asian spouse (which, although not a large number, is certainly noticeably higher than it used to be) and the proportion is increasing.
It’s worth bearing in mind that, in the cases where people marrying spouses from the same background isn’t simply a matter of personal preference, they’re frequently doing so because of parental pressures and/or because they’re not willing to burn their bridges if their parents are vehemently against the idea.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that, if they had a completely free hand in the matter, they’re insular, backward, prejudiced etc themselves and would have any objections to marrying someone from a different background.
No, you’re confusing it with ‘assimilation’. Integration is about areas of common ground and generally being able to function in British society with (ideally) minimal friction.
And the following point…..
…..is of course common sense and completely correct.
Of course these were traditional British values.
Not actually traditional values. They may be regrettably prevalent problems, but I’ve never known them to be presented as values.
And your reading of Jai’s comment is ludicrous.
On reflection, I will admit that getting pissed has a very long tradition in England. Other people have been commenting on it rather sniffily for millenia.
The best solution is to combine both.
Absolutely. Speaking personally, that has never been a problem. If you aspire to being no more than a decent human being then you probably share 90+% of the values of anyone else with the same modest aspiration.
I get the feeling that a considerable number of Asians just prefer to have your family find a suitable partner, rather than to go through the whole dating scene.
lol @ Riz.
Ravi,
As always I can’t speak for Asians in general, but amongst the British Indian contingent it’s actually the opposite. Almost everyone goes through “the dating scene” in one form or another; apart from the very conservative minority, people generally only end up eventually going for the arranged marriage route if they either don’t find someone via their own efforts, or if their parents have a basic ideological “moral” objection to the notion of their kids marrying someone via a “love marriage” (even if the person concerned is/would actually be “suitable”), or if there’s some kind of impasse regarding the actual or theoretical person the individual would like to marry and whom their parents object to even if they may not necessarily object to a love marriage under different conditions.
Out of the 2nd-gen Indians I’ve met, I’d estimate at least 50-60% to have had a “love marriage”, and the proportion has been even higher amongst some social circles.
The whole ‘get your family to find someone’ malarkey isn’t necessarily the ideal option amongst most 2nd-gen Indians and in many cases certainly isn’t an option they’re interested in exercising full-stop if they have any choice in the matter.
“Of course these were traditional British values.
And many things in British culture are better than Asian culture such as the efficiency , lack of corruption, politeness etc
The best solution is to combine both”
If I can play devil’s advocate, why is it necessary to keep and combine “Asian values”?
Often, I have found this “not losing Indian values” for diasporans often a pressure tactic to stay in line with the diasporan community’s conformity and social demands. I find it mindboggling– why should I attempt to be “Indian” if I was born and raised elsewhere? The answer is generally-but mistakenly- because of my “blood.”
I am a firm believer that people are a products of their socio-cultural, political, linguistic, and localized environments. If you were born and raised in the UK to Gujarati/Punjabi/Bengali whatever parents, you may know some things about where your parents come from, but maybe not– for you, the UK is your “home”, even if others tell you otherwise. Perhaps you accompany them to trips to India. But in the end, the only people who really care about “keeping Indian values” are parents and their social circle. It’s a shame when their children–even as adults–start pushing this type of mentality onto others, i.e. denigrating their peers as “coconut,” “sell-outs,” etc.
Another thing too is that “Indian values” as our elders see it are fast fading in some sections of the population which resides in large, metropolitan Indian cities–some folks who speak predominantly English, dress in “Western clothes,” date, choose not to marry, smoke, drink, are “loose”. So who is to define what “Indian values” are? “Indian values” are usually the conservatives’ version of what culture, identity, and so on are.
And if I may add something else– the South Asian diaspora is amongst the most conservative I have seen in degree and extent. The obsession with “all things Indian”–even if these are folks who are like THIRD generation diasporan–is absurd. It can’t be healthy to spend most of their time arranging marriages within the “community,” making life and personal decisions according to imagined reactions they’ll get at the gurdwara/mandhir whatever, shutting themselves off from everyone else who is not like them, harboring racist notions against blacks, whites, basically anyone who differs slightly from how they are, perpetuating female domestic servitude, and believing that just because you eat a samosa, listen to bhangra, know how to make chai and serve it to guests, and marrying someone “suitable” is being “Indian.”
There’s no space for evolution of thoughts, norms, mentality,and of becoming a part of where you were born and raised. Some diasporan communities have built this impenetrable cocoon around themselves, and I imagine that this is constraining, restrictive, oppressive, and stifles the growth of individuals.
NOTE: I am not speaking about ALL South Asian diasporans–but a good number of them.
And it is true that many first generation immigrant communities–both South Asian and not–resist “assimilation” for various reasons such as racism from the dominant group and etc, but it is also true that three, four generations down the line, things change a little bit, people loosen up (with the exception of groups like the Afrikaaners in South Africa).
Agree with Desi
I would welcome the day when there are just values and not British or Asian values
@ persephone:
I’ll second that….
@ persephone:
I’ll second that.
Desi, as usual, you are completely correct, but as long as the voices of diasporan Asian men are ably supported by their older female co-misogynists, they will conveniently pretend not to hear the hypocrisy of what they say…
I think you may have moved me to a blog post. THANK YOU.
(Sorry about the double post, no idea how that happened).
Desi, as usual, you are completely correct, but as long as the voices of diasporan Asian men are ably supported by their older female co-misogynists, they will conveniently pretend not to hear the hypocrisy of what they say…