A Growing US Problem, by Frank Vernuccio, 9/9/16
An EMS worker in Bronx, New York
recently informed the New York Analysis of Policy & Government that he had
been driving his ambulance to the scene of suicide attempts by young women in
neighborhoods with recent Moslem immigrants, who seek to kill themselves rather
than submit to forced marriages.
The problem appears to be growing quickly,
but little is being said or done about it, and government and social welfare
organizations appear to be unprepared to deal with it. The National
Organization for Women, NOW, does not even mention the issue on its website.
A report by Aljazeera notes: “While forced
marriage may sound like the concept of arranged marriage – with parents playing
matchmaker for their children – the element of coercion when a marriage is
forced often leaves women feeling ‘like slaves,’ according to Tanya McLeod,
senior campaign organizer at the Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW), an
organization dedicating to providing help and resources to victims of domestic
violence in New York…
In June 2012 the United Kingdom announced it would criminalize forced
marriage, following the lead of Norway, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Belgium,
Cyprus, and Malta. In 2012 alone, the U.K. Forced Marriage Unit noted 1,485
cases related to possible forced marriage. Curtis said that current research
only scratches the surface of a problem he suspects is more widespread but
largely hidden from public view… the fact that forced marriage falls outside
the scope of New York and federal laws makes the issue hard to define and
prosecute.”
The AHA Foundation, a non-profit
founded by women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, estimates that: “1,500
individuals, most of them girls and women, are forced into a marriage in the US
– every year. And the law on this harmful practice is still predominantly
silent: the vast majority of states in the US do not forbid forced marriage.
Only 10 states and territories have stood up and made forced marriage
illegal. It is also shocking that according to Unchained at Last, marriage
records show that tens of thousands of children, as young as 12, were married
in the US in the last decade. All that is needed to marry off an underage girl
in the majority of states is her parents’ or judicial approval… Marriage
records in New Jersey show that more than 160 minors between the ages of 13 and
15 were married off in this state alone from 1995 to 2015. Nearly all were
girls, the majority married to older men.”
A study by the Tahirih Justice Center
reports that forced marriage is a problem in the United States, “with as many
as 3,000 known and suspected cases identified by survey respondents in just the
1st two years. The fact that potentially thousands of young women and girls
from immigrant communities may face forced marriages each year in the United
States is alarming and demands attention. Just as alarming, community-based
service providers working on the frontlines are struggling with how to
recognize and handle forced marriage cases, and how to offer a lifeline to an
individual who may have only one chance to reach out for help.”
Other key findings from Tahirih’s survey
include: “Forced marriage is being seen in immigrant communities from 56
different countries… Two out of three respondents (67%) felt that there were
cases of forced marriage not being identified in the populations with which
they work-this finding suggests a significant population of ‘hidden victims’
beyond the potentially 3000 cases identified through Tahirih’s survey”.
Less than 10% of respondents said they
had a working definition of forced marriage at their agency, and less than a
quarter of respondents (22%) said their agency’s screening and referral process
enabled them to identify cases where forced marriage may be of concern… Less
than one in five respondents (16%) said that their agency was properly equipped
to help individuals facing forced marriage.
Almost half of respondents (46%) who
provided information on particular tactics used against victims reported that
victims had been subjected to actual physical violence. 13 respondents also
reported murder attempts among the forced marriage cases they encountered, and
1 respondent reported an actual murder. 42 respondents reported that they had
encountered forced marriage victims who had contemplated or attempted suicide.
These and other survey findings suggest
that we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg on this problem-that thousands
of individuals in the United States may be threatened with forced marriage each
year, and yet at present, victims have little hope of finding the protection
and assistance they need.”
A petition has been posted on the
Change.org site, urging that the U.S. adopt a strategic and national action
plan to combat forced marriage.
Comments
Knowing
that Sharia law is incompatible with US law, we should ban Sharia law in each
state, reassert States’ 10th Amendment rights and treat Muslims who
violate US law the same way we treated polygamist cults. But first we need to
codify a legal define of “religion” to exclude Sharia law and polygamy to
ensure that courts won’t accept law suits based on “religious freedom”.
There is
a strong case that can be made based on the Quran to define Islam as an
illegal, treasonous insurgent political movement aimed at the overthrow of the
US government. Muslims who want to live in the US will need to assimilate or
relocate to a Muslim country.
This is
not an opportunity for government to expand in order to manage the
inappropriate migration of incompatible residents. If given a chance, our
government will find the most expensive strategies they can find to not handle
this problem. The Communists want to see us go bankrupt trying to handle this
crap.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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