Stories related to: forced marriage

An 8-year-old girl granted a divorce by a Yemeni court last week has described how she ran from "room to room" to escape her 30-year-old husband until he "beat me and then did what he wanted," reports ABC News. "I cried so much, but no one listened to me." The girl, forced into the arranged marriage by her father, fled early this month to a nearby courthouse, where a lawyer agreed to take her case. More »

Hundreds of kids from ethnic minorities are disappearing from British schools, and authorities are worried that they're being forced into marriages in other countries. Two separate government probes are investigating, the BBC reports, but one expert says there could be as many as 3,000 forced marriages a year in the UK alone. More »

Violence in the name of family honor affects at least 17,000 women every year in Britain, and the number of unreported incidents may be drastically higher, the Independent reports. Forced marriages, sexual assaults, domestic violence, and so-called "honor" killings are reaching crisis levels, British officials say; they are calling on their consulates abroad to ramp up rescue efforts when daughters, some as young as 11, are sent abroad to marry against their will. More »