November 30, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 24, 1423

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LONDONDERRY, Nov 29: The incidents of forced marriage are highest in the Pakistani population in the UK with the Bangladeshis following a close second, a recent report commissioned and launched by the British Foreign Office said.

According to the analytical report of the British Foreign Office, titled “Community Perceptions of Forced Marriage,” the incidents of forced marriage involve both populations, even though most reports of forced marriage have concerned Pakistanis rather than Bangladeshis.

The report investigates the perceptions of forced marriage within the Bengali community in Tower Hamlets and the Pakistani community in Bradford.

The report said the problem of forced marriages is increasing and that this increase is partially explained by the demographic profile of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi community, both very young populations who are reaching marriageable age. Moreover, it said, the problem is compounded by male to female sex ratio imbalance and educated females not finding a suitable match from their communities in the UK.

The report acknowledged that selection of two Muslim communities, to the exclusion of others, could quickly raise the accusation of Islamophobia, religious discrimination and concerns that racial stereotypes are shaping the public debate about forced marriages and the policy initiatives that may emerge.

Defending the reason to select the two Muslim communities, the eport said most of the forced marriage cases handled by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) involve women and men from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Earlier, in August 2000, the FCO, together with the Home Office, published a Joint Action Plan on forced marriage. Subsequently, a community liaison unit (CLU) was set up in the Human Rights Section of the FCO consular division with particular focus on protecting the human rights of victims and potential victims.

Since October 2000, the CLU has dealt with over 440 cases, and has helped to repatriate 75 young people. Eighty-five per cent of cases involve women victims and 15 per cent male victims, the report said.

According to the report, while the issue of forced marriages is not restricted to a particular racial, ethnic or religious group, it does seem to be more common where the practice of arranged marriage is the norm.

Among South Asians, the report said, practice of parents choosing the spouse is most common among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, but the practice is now declining and ‘cooperative’-arranged marriages are beginning to become more common among the young. The report said the rates of marriage among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were comparatively high — 73 per cent and 74 per cent.

Exploring the links between the degree of choice and the class and qualification background of the parents, the report said the practice of ‘traditional’ arranged marriages is strongest among those groups which are least qualified and involved in manual work. Both communities, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, are disproportionately working class and have low human capital in the UK, the report added.

The regional differences of Pakistan are manifested in the population’s marriage patterns in the UK along highly differentiated linguistic, ethnic and clan lines. Strong regional ties differentiated Pakhtoons from Punjabis and from the majority of British Pakistanis, who come from northern Pakistan, specially from the Azad Kashmir district of Mirpur.

“These regional differences map on to the towns and cities of this country since Mirpuris predominate in the Pakistani populations of Bradford and Birmingham, for example, while Faisalabadis [from Punjab] reportedly predominate in Manchester and Glasgow.

The report said the regional differences are compounded by social divisions based on family, kinship ties, caste or caste-like groups and tribe or caste, the report said.

Those who are more likely to reject the arranged marriage option are upwardly mobile, as well as those who have been brought up in the UK, ‘particularly those with higher education and economic independence’. Increasing education among the younger generation of Pakistanis links to a decline of first-cousin marriage among this group.

Conversely, low literacy rates among parents are associated with high levels of consanguineal marriages and hence the reluctance of educated women to contract trans-continental marriages.

The report pointed out that since marriage is conducted between patrilineal subgroups among Pakistanis, this might result in the lack of appropriate choices being available in Britain. Sex asymmetries and differentials in educational qualifications compounded by endogamy mean that there may not be an alternative to conducting a trans-continental marriage.

Citing an example, the report said, 50 per cent of marriages in Bradford are trans-continental in which the partners are selected from Pakistan while in Oxford the proportion of these alliances is estimated to be as high as 71 per cent. The difference between Oxford and Bradford primarily relates to the number of eligible candidates available. The Bradford population is significantly larger than Oxford, therefore finding an appropriate partner within a specific kin group is more difficult in Oxford.