Paris, the universal capital of love and romance, created a manual on forced marriages this week to help officials spot and prevent cases of young women being forced into matrimony.
An estimated 70,000 young women in France are victims (or potential victims) of forced marriages, according to a government study. City officials who conduct weddings often don't know how to deal with their suspicion — clearly they haven't spent time in Vegas! — so the city created some guidelines.
What are telltale signs? The 32-page book lists clues like when "middlemen fill in the required documents ahead of the wedding, when the woman does not appear at the city hall at any point before the wedding day, or when there is a big age difference between the man and the woman". It also notes signs like bridal distress or submission to relatives, brides that can't answer questions clearly and brides that don't know their fiancé's personal history.
Laura Ashley
Interesting...I've never really heard of this within this kind of context. I wonder what the rate is in other industrialized countries of forced marriage and what the reasons are.
1Awful!
I think it's important to protect marriage as the institution as it has historically been defined: A union between one man and his new property.
2This happens in Germany too among Turkish immigrants. Turkish girls are often forced into marriage by their parents with someone in their community before they get too heavily influenced by modern-day German culture. They are usually of the Islamic faith. There are some underground programs in Germany that help Turkish women escape forced marriage. They are similar to escapee programs here in America for battered women.
3
I can think of few worse things than being forced to marry (and have perpetual sex with)
someone you don't like, are not attracted to and don't love (and there's a big chance of that happening under these circumstances).
4i think that it's a good thing that they are trying to be more aware of what's going on, but think about the instances where the bride and groom are a legitimate couple and they have a large age difference. i think that they will be wrongly interrogated and that's taking away from the joy of marriage. (sorry - i like to play devil's advocate sometimes)
5How common is it that older men or older woman are in love with younger men or woman? I think its actually pretty common in some parts of the United States, but, exactly how common (numbers, percentage in comparison to US) is it in France and other countries?
Plus the thing with 'love' is sometimes couples are forced to 'love' each other and in those circumstances the manual will not help at all. (ie. full family setups decided months or years before the couple even existed.) Some arranged unions can never be detected.
6I can't see how this will be enforceable...question ppl with age differences and refuse to let them marry if the groom doesn't know what name night cream his bride uses! (like immigration questions which are just plane stupid sometimes).
7"I think it's important to protect marriage as the institution as it has historically been defined: A union between one man and his new property."
8TS you almost made me spit out my precious coffee!
9
TS
10Post New Comment
Please share your opinion with our community, but make sure it is on topic and follows our Community Rules. We moderate comments and prohibit personal attacks, threats, spam, lewd images, or the promotion of your personal website.