Forced marriage blights the lives of scores of learning disabled people

More than 50 cases of people with learning disabilities are forced to marry was reported last year. And while the main motivation was to provide a caregiver, often abusive relationships

Six years after their marriage ended, Sufia Ahmed stopped biting weapons and use razors to cut. His mother says he feels guilty, stressing repeatedly that he would never have to marry his daughter if he had known what would happen to him.

Ahmed, 33, had no idea what was happening when the community his family decided it was a good match for a man who had just arrived from India. He needed a visa and, as Ahmed has a learning disability, it was estimated that nobody wants to marry.

"Mom knows best," said Ahmed. "[I thought] I want to marry a good man. Marry and I want to be like my sister. I hoped that my husband thinks I'm pretty."

Instead, a year after her marriage, her husband took all their benefits and send money to his family, who lived abroad and was regularly beaten and raped. When she became pregnant, their continuing abuse of the abortive said.

Ahmed is not an isolated incident. More than 50 cases of people with learning difficulties forced marriages were reported to the government forced marriage unit (FMU) last year. Many said they had been raped repeatedly until she becomes pregnant. Many abuses are regularly confronted physically and emotionally.

Rachael Clawson, social work academic at the University of Nottingham, who worked with Ann Craft Foundation to carry out the research, said that these figures are "the tip of the iceberg" . Based on your understanding of the subject, hundreds of adults with learning difficulties, as Ahmed, was forced to marry and abuse.

"All types of abuse of people with learning disabilities are under-reported ... and there is no reason to believe that the abuse of forced marriages would be different. ' S Likely to be very little reported, "she said.

This is the first time a practice hitherto associated with the Asian communities in honor or questions related to immigration endanger people with learning disabilities . In 2011, there were 1,468 cases in the FMU gave advice or support regarding a possible forced marriage. Of these, 66 cases involved persons with disabilities, 56 had learning.

"People with learning disabilities may be particularly vulnerable to forced labor

wedding," said Mark Goldring, chief executive of the charity Mencap learning disability. "[T] with a learning disability have the right to develop personal relationships, like everyone else ... but the point here is that cases of forced marriage can involve people who have not have the capacity to consent to such a relationship. "

Any marriage where one party does not have the capacity to consent are legally classified as forced. However, Clawson noted that many parents of children with learning disabilities do not know what is. "They do not realize what they were doing forced marriage," she said. Some parents have even said health professionals about their plans.

Although all marriages that have been studied in communities where there is a cultural tradition of forced marriage, including the families of Pakistani or Indian, and other Middle East, Africa and Europe, to obtain a visa for a foreign spouse was remarkably low in the list of motivations. The main reason most parents gave to force their children to marry was to give a caregiver, said Clawson. Mandy Sanghera, a human rights activist for 20 years has tried over 200 cases in the UK and Canada for people with a learning disability are forced to marry, and who worked the UMF study said that parents of adults with learning disabilities, forced marriage is often an act of desperation.

"Many struggle with family responsibilities due to old age, health problems and even not being able to manage your child's behavior or disability," she said. "Parents are trying to access services such as education, health and social work activities without getting anywhere. In desperation, they will [even] to take their children abroad to obtain a spouse educator. "

• stigma around disability in some communities is also a factor in most of the cases studied, according to Clawson. Marriage can be seen as a way to "normalize" people with learning disabilities. Others believe that play the role of spouse somehow "cure" the disabled person said.

Sanghera insists that these cultural beliefs are no excuse. "Even if families have good intentions, they are breaking the law," she said. "Nobody has the right to make decisions that change life in the name of another person."

Teertha Gupta, quality control and a lawyer specializing in family law and forced marriage, said that after forcing their children to marry, parents are often "complicity" of abuse later. "They are forced to marry, but also any sexual crimes are committed ... a person who does not, who can not consent to sex -. [What parents] complicity, "he said BBC Radio 4 Face the facts, which explores the subject in a program broadcast on Wednesday.

Ahmed remember to stay the abuse. "I do not like this game you want to play more," she said she told her husband. I did not understand what was happening. This continued for three years until, having acquired the British Residency, her husband is gone.
In many marriages, the spouse without the problem of learning the victim. The person may not realize that they marry someone who is incapable of giving consent, Clawson said. They are often used by her parents to work and forced to take care of their elderly parents and your partner.

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