A woman who was tricked into travelling to Bangladesh by her parents as a 15-year-old schoolgirl is leading a new campaign that encourages girls in the UK to use a spoon in their fight against forced marriages.
"Girls put a teaspoon in their knickers [underwear] so that it buys them two seconds to speak out when they’re going through security at the airport. That’s a good idea," the woman said, on condition of anonymity.
"Abuse is abuse, full stop - we need to make sure kids know what abuse is, so people can’t just say it’s my religion," said the woman, who was able to escape her forced marriage in Bangladesh and now campaigns against forced marriage.
UK-based Karma Nirvana charity is working with a range of schools across northern England to give out spoons to schoolgirls to hide in their underwear during the summer holidays – the time of the year when most victims are forced out of Britain on the pretext of a family holiday.
“The summer holiday is the ideal time for parents who want to take their child abroad to be married because the school won’t be looking for where they are,” said Jasvinder Sanghera, herself a former victim of forced marriage who set up the charity 25 years ago.
According to the UK government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), the four countries with the highest number of cases of British nationals being forced into a marriage against their will last year were Pakistan (439), Bangladesh (129), Somalia (91) and India (82).
“We advocate early prevention, working within these communities, to speak with these children before they even reach the airport. We want them to know that help is available to them,” said David Myers, joint head of the FMU.
A law making it a criminal offence to force people into marriage came into effect in the UK in June 2014. Parents or family members who force children to marry can be punished by up to seven years in prison.