Welsh Forced Marriage, HUH?

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I only mention this because there are Welsh people here who could maybe give this story some context. What is going on?

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/welsh_forced_ma...

Gwen

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Well, I'm not sure the article doesn't have it backwards

Puddintane's picture

What they're saying is that there are more forced marriages being reported to help lines designed to help people escape these "arranged" marriages, which says more about the number of people who feel free to escape them than it does about absolute numbers.

The UK is a multi-ethnic society and its citizens come from all over the world, just as they do in the USA, where there's also a problem with forced marriages. In many societies around the world, marriage is an economic transaction designed to preserve family wealth and power across generations, just as it is, we might add, amongst the royal households of Europe, most of whom can only marry other "Royals" lest they lose their "Royal" status, or that of their children.

Many children who've grown up "here" rebel against such strictures, because they've grown up with the expectations of our primary culture, which pays rather more attention to romantic love than it does to family "duty." When one seeks True Love, one may not be inclined to fancy Second Cousin Fred, whose family has lots of money, where Fred himself has bad breath and a violent temper.

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

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Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

arranged marriages isn't

arranged marriages isn't only practised in foreign cultures, even in western cultures there's some of that.
a friend rebelled the arrangement that had her bound to her parent's best friend's son, just as an example. and over the years i read about other examples. it might be rare now, but it still happens.

Not one word

Not one word in the article that the 'forced marriages' referred to are almost exclusively from families who come from other parts of the world where such things are customarily practiced. Ex: The whole South Asia region, parts of Turkey, the Balkans and Caucasus, Arab lands, Indonesia.

Not exclusively Muslim but more of a cultural thing, I suspect. The way this article is worded would make anyone not familiar with Wales think that the article is about the Welsh population generally, which is very far from the truth.

We get items on the TV news every so often about such things happening in the UK, although Wales isn't particularly mentioned. The numbers involved are, thankfully, very small. It's just what happens when cultures collide.

Penny

It doesn't cite the original source

Angharad's picture

So I suspect this is drawn from a small piece in a local newspaper or a regional report. I've seen nothing in the UK press relating to a particular problem in Wales, which in places like Cardiff and Swansea is multicultural/cosmopolitan; and in small rural areas is anything but, and sheep trafficking is more likely.

Angharad

Angharad

Re: It doesn't cite the original source

Greetings

There have been problems over many years where families have arranged marriages for their children. However, it seldom happens among older established families.

The problem of sheep trafficking is an entirely different matter, whole flocks can be captured and stolen!

Brian