A BRITISH woman whose sister was murdered in a so-called honour killing after being pushed into marriage as a teenager urged the government last week to outlaw all child marriage.
Britain has been vocal about ending child marriage in developing countries, but allows 16 and 17-year-olds in England and Wales to wed with parental consent.
Payzee Mahmod said her own story showed how families were exploiting the consent clause to force their children into marriages which destroyed their lives. “The law needs to change because it’s not protecting children,” said Mahmod, who was repeatedly raped and abused after being married off at 16 to a much older man.
Mahmod was speaking as politicians and women’s rights groups launched a major campaign to push for the criminalisation of all marriage under 18.
A bill introduced in the upper house of parliament this week envisages making it an offence punishable by up to 14 years in jail to encourage or assist a child under 18 to marry. The proposed legislation would also cover religious marriages and marriages abroad if at least one party normally resides in England or Wales.
Nearly 2,000 people in Britain were wed before the age of 18 between 2010 and 2015, according to official data, but campaigners say the numbers do not include those married in religious ceremonies or sent abroad to wed. Girls from south Asian and Middle Eastern backgrounds are seen as most at risk.
Mahmod told how she and sister Banaz (right) were pushed into early marriage after an older sister rebelled. Banaz died after being strangled in 2006 on her family’s orders for trying to leave her abusive husband. Her father, uncle and two other men were sentenced to life in jail.
Mahmod, now a fashion stylist, said she was a normal London teenager interested in pop stars and fashion when she was told she would be marrying a man 15 years older. “There was no way I could have said to my parents, ‘I don’t want to get married’. I had no choice,” she said.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event