Girl saved from forced marriage

2008-07-24 11:32

Dhaka - A British teenager has been rescued from a forced marriage to her Bangladeshi cousin after begging diplomats to help her, local police said on Thursday.

The 19-year-old woman travelled from Britain with her mother to Sylhet, in northeastern Bangladesh, where she was to marry the son of her mother's brother, local police chief Mohidur Rahman Khan said.

Hours before the wedding was to take place, Nasrin Begum telephoned the British consular office in Sylhet and begged staff to intervene because she did not want to marry the man, Khan said.

"The embassy officials came to the village with police and rescued the girl from a marriage that she did not want," he said.

Local government chief Ataur Rahman said Nasrin, who was born in the UK, was later handed back to her mother, Asma Begum, after assurances that she would not be forced into the marriage.

A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Dhaka said staff assisted in 56 forced marriage cases between April 2007 and March 2008.

"We think there are more out there," he said, refusing to comment on the Begum case, which comes a day after the British government tightened visa rules as part of a crackdown on forced marriages.

Britain's Forced Marriage Unit, set up by the Home and Foreign offices, handles about 5 000 enquiries and 400 cases per year concerning young Britons at risk of being forced into marriage overseas.

The majority of cases involve families from Pakistan, Bangladesh or India, where arranged marriages are considered part of the culture, with some victims from Africa, South America and Europe.

There are around half a million British nationals of Bangladeshi origin, many from Sylhet and its adjoining districts.

- AFP