I was betrothed to a grown man when I was eight and locked in my room until I accepted. Social workers' fear of being called racist is failing young victims but we can no longer shy away from race and
Freedom helps support victims of forced marriage, female genital mutilation and family dishonour. The UK government set up the Forced Marriage Unit in 2005 to tackle the rise in domestic forced marriage and introduced a law in 2014 making FGM illegal. Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, said: 'So called "honour"-based abuse has no place in our society. 'We are determined to tackle these crimes and have recently increased funding for the national "honour"-based abuse helpline to support more victims. 'We will lay out more ways we plan to tackle "honour"-based abuse in our upcoming strategy to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade.'
Source: Daily Mail December 26, 2025 22:56 UTC
