Syal in attack on forced marriages

A major campaign against forced marriages is launched today with a plea by TV actress Meera Syal for parents to stop sacrificing their children's lives.

Print, radio and television publicity featuring two hands wearing wedding rings chained together will spearhead the government drive by telling victims where they can find help to escape.

The campaign will warn parents they face prosecution if they force marriages on their children.

The aim is to prevent the estimated 300 that take place each year involving Britons, many of them Londoners.

Evidence gathered by the Government's forced-marriage unit indicates that nearly a third of victims are under 16 and 85 per cent are female.

Although most cases involve families from South Asia, there are also victims who originate in Arab states such as Kuwait and Yemen, and in Africa and the Balkans. Many of the marriages end in violence.

Syal, patron of the Asian Women's Resource Network, Newham, said arranged marriages could be positive but forced weddings were unacceptable.

She said: "The issue has remained hidden - as do many issues around abuse and domestic violence. We need to ensure that anyone from any community or faith being forced into marriage against their will is aware that they have a choice.

"Forced marriages are a deviation from the respected practice of arranged marriages.

"It is a successful tradition of many cultures that families take a leading role in choosing a marriage partner for a young person but the people getting married must have the final say.

"We want the older generations to know that we respect their culture and understand that arranged marriages have a place but there is a vast difference between an arranged and a forced marriage - consent."

Home Office minister Baroness Scotland, who launched the campaign today, said: "Forced marriage is a form of domestic violence and a human-rights abuse.

"We are determined to help young people at risk and protect their right to choose whom they marry."

The campaign will feature the phone number of the forcedmarriage unit - 020 7008 0151.

There will also be information on how to obtain legal, housing and police assistance.

Leaflets will be distributed in communities where the practice is most prevalent to inform families about the implications.

Unit head Lisa Bandari said illegal weddings included those where emotional blackmail is used.

She said: "A forced marriage is one conducted under duress... emotional pressure as well as physical pressure. It does not have to involve someone being dragged to the ceremony."

Since 2000, the Foreign Office has dealt with more than 1,250 cases. Embassies and consulates rescue, repatriate or assist about 150 victims a year.

Some forced marriages are believed to occur in Britain.