Forced Marriage Summer Campaign – #RightToChoose

Last week saw the launch of the Forced Marriage Unit’s annual summer campaign. The long summer holiday is a high risk time when families may use the opportunity to take young women and men abroad for a forced marriage.

This year the Forced Marriage Unit has produced short audio pieces based on the film launched in October Right to Choose: Consequences of Forced Marriage. The audio pieces are designed to be aired on radio both in the UK and abroad. To reach communities in countries with a high prevalence of forced marriage, the audio files have been translated into Arabic, Bengali, Punjabi, Somali and Urdu.

The film and audio versions highlight the devastating consequences of forced marriage as a young man tells the story of his sister who was taken overseas for a ‘holiday’ and then forced into a marriage. The #RightToChoose digital campaign launched on FCO’s social media channels last week and launched the film and audio versions which are all available online. The campaign highlighted the work of the Forced Marriage Unit including some key myths and facts about forced marriage – and we gave all this material out to a range of partners at home and overseas to really help get the message to right places and to those who needed to hear us.

The response to the campaign has been fantastic; from Avon & Somerset Police to our High Commission in Pakistan, from Leicester City Council to the Government Equalities Dept, from the British Embassy in Saudi Arabia to NGOs such as Refuge.

The Foreign Office’s global network of Embassies and High Commissions have been promoting the campaign around the world along with some amazing support from partners the length and breadth of the UK including the police, Crown Prosecution Service, local councils, charities and other government departments such as Department for International Development, Education and Communities &  Local Government to help ensure it reaches communities across the UK. There were 2,000 social media posts with our #RightToChoose hashtag and just under 100 Embassies, High Commissions and Ambassadors joined the conversation online over the last 10 days alone.

This week the FCO was delighted to host Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy at a screening of her Oscar winning documentary A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. The film tells the true story of Saba, an eighteen year girl who survives an honour killing attempt by her father and uncle after she dares to choose the man she wants to marry. The film screening allowed us to raise awareness of this heinous form of violence against women, and reiterate the importance of the work we do to prevent forced marriage and eradicate so called ‘honour’ based violence. As the Prime Minister said yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions “there is absolutely no honour in so-called honour-based violence. It is violence and a criminal act, pure and simple.”

Our work on this issue remains as important as ever, and we hope the message of this campaign will continue to travel around the world, letting those at risk know that they are not alone and that they can get help. Anyone concerned they may be forced into a marriage, or worried someone they know may be at risk, should call the Forced Marriage Unit on 020 7008 0151