In a landmark case, a British court has sentenced a woman to four-and-a-half years in prison for forcing her then-13-year-old daughter to marry a then-29-year-old man in Pakistan.
The BBC notes that after the girl protested the marriage, her mother “threatened to burn her passport and assaulted her.” The victim became pregnant shortly after her marriage and was “then forced to have an abortion upon her return to the U.K.”
Yet, while justice has been served in this case, the court’s decision also serves as a long-overdue warning to other perpetrators of forced marriage.
After all, too many girls and boys in British-Pakistani families face continuing pressure from their parents to sacrifice their freedom for reasons of social, economic, or religious value. And for too long, this issue and related concerns have been ignored for British authorities in fear of offending British Muslims. This political correctness has caused suffering to go unchallenged.
Of course, a secondary stupidity of the government’s neglect is that British Muslims — the vast majority of who are good and honorable citizens — were tarred by the brush of generalization.
This case suggests a new approach may take hold. Another positive note here is the girl’s father, presumably also of Pakistani-British descent, was responsible for informing the police. He represents a rebuke to those, like Britain First, who would decry all British-Pakistani men as immoral cretins.
