Forced or Arranged Marriage and Women’s Responses

Abstract

This chapter is grounded in women’s experiences of the control and oppression of their sexuality, of forced or arranged marriage, and of their strategies for survival and their struggles. I came into contact with a number of women through women’s organizations and the shelters in which they had taken refuge. Their cases differed regarding not only the cause of problem, but also the extent of the threat to which they were exposed. However, common to all of them was that their problems were, in different ways, related to the control of their sexuality, mainly through a forced or arranged marriage that, in every case, was against the woman’s wishes. Two categories of experiences are discussed in this chapter. The first is about unmarried women who face violence and threats to kill by refusing a forced marriage. The second is about married women who are threatened because they have an extramarital relationship. Many of these women had been living in the shelters for months or even years. Far more women stay in the shelters for shorter periods and return to their families after their conflict has been resolved with the help and assistance of the women’s organizations (see chapter 5). The women I met were among those with more complicated cases, and the threats they faced were much more serious. For many, there was no possibility of reconciliation.