Diana Nammi, who heads the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, which supports women and men affected by forced marriage, believes schools are best placed to prevent this kind of abuse because teachers are in constant touch with pupils who are most at risk. The Guardian newspaper recently reported that in the last two years, of the 215 applications for forced marriage protection orders, over half were for children under the age of 17. The BBC, quoting the FMU said that 29 per cent of the cases it dealt with last year involved minors. The issue crops up increasingly between GCSE and sixth form when girls, even boys, are taken on a family vacation to their ancestral villages never to return to school. In March this year, a five-year-old became a potential victim of forced marriage. She was among the 400 children to have received help from the FMU in the last one year.

“We tell them their rights, especially their right to choose their spouse, legal age of marriage and then we give them practical advice. This may include giving a copy of the passport to the FMU to keeping a scanned copy of their email, important telephone numbers (embassy in that country, and of organisation assisting in preventing forced marriage) on their email,” said Nammi. She said they also talk to students on how to be on the look-out for tell-tale signs when they are going abroad on a family vacation. Sadly, she says, schools are very reluctant to allow organisations like her to talk and train teachers and students.

The same is experienced by Jasvinder Sanghera, of the Karma Nirvana, a British charity. For the past three years she has been writing to hundreds of schools offering to visit and raise awareness of the issue, but to no avail.

“Except for one or two schools, it seems to fall on deaf ears. There is not only a sheer lack of engagement; the head teachers don't want us to broach the topic because they think it's a cultural issue.” She is frustrated that the issue is not taken up seriously enough.

“I asked one of the teachers during my rare visits how she would handle if a case of forced marriage came to her? ‘I would provide a shoulder to cry on’ she said and I was aghast. She had no idea that she could prevent this from happening or that there are organisations that she can seek help from,” said Nammi. “They are more worried about not upsetting the community and the parents, and often think it's a cultural or a religious issue!”

The FMU has statutory guidelines in place for schools to recognise the warning signs but a recent review, carried out by the unit, pointed to the failure of schools to take these seriously.

“Schools, further education colleges, health services, housing and local authorities will need to do more on the issue if they are to achieve a reasonable response to this form of abuse,” the review concluded, further stating that “without greater senior management commitment to [the issue of] forced marriage within each agency, it is unlikely that the statutory guidance on forced marriage will be implemented to the standard that was intended.” — Z.T.E.