WOMEN AND FORCED MARRIAGE IN SCOTLAND

h. ‘Honour’: As described above in more detail, ‘honour’ plays a major role in the life of
BME communities in Scotland. In fact, it can be so strongly instilled in community
members that the young women themselves who are at risk, being threatened or who
are surviving forced marriages might be deterred from seeking help because they
recognize the perceived impact this is going to have on their families’ and
communities’ honour.
i. The best organizations often have the worst reputations: At Saheliya, we very often
find that knowledge about the existence and scope of our services is transmitted
through word of mouth within communities. This also tends to be the case for other
women’s only organizations, particularly such as Shakti Women’s Aid who help
women, children and young people escape domestic abuse, going against the
traditional values the community lives by. There is therefore a fear and dislike of such
organizations ‘meddling’ or ‘corrupting’ the women who access them. Although
Saheliya provides a wide range of holistic services specializing in supporting women
who are surviving escaping or surviving forced marriage as well as any other form of
honour based violence including female genital mutilation, we do not publicize this
information. We uphold a strict code of confidentiality: most of the women using our
services often do not tell their families they are doing so- if they do, they explain that
they come for English classes, support with homework and correspondence, sewing
classes, etc.
j. Funding a Forced Marriage Protection Order: One of the biggest hurdles, even if a
woman has had the courage to seek support regarding forced marriage, is the cost of a
protection order. With regards to younger women under sixteen, Child Protection
Legislation gives organizations and the authorities considerably more power to act.
However, as Elaine McLaughlin (Hemat Gryffe, Glasgow) puts it ‘to get the papers
lodged into court there’s a fee. At the moment…it’s £105 to do that. And then the
sheriff can launch an interim order that day but he’ll fix a hearing later on so to
employ the services of a solicitor, who pays for that?...Solicitors can charge up to
£250 an hour...’ This therefore indicates that even if the emotional and psychological
barriers are excluded, there is a very realistic hurdle of actually funding a protection
order, which adds to women’s vulnerability.
37