Men Who Balk at Forced Marriages

It’s not just women who object to forced marriages, according to today’s Århus Stiftstidende. Henrik of Europe News has kindly translated the article from Danish for us:

Men do not like to be forced, either

Improving integration makes men seek help concerning problems with forced marriages at the Immigrants’ Advisers (Indvandrerrådgivningen) in Århus, the second largest city in Denmark.

(From Ritzau, by Rasmus Boserup)

Not only women seek help when forced into marriages. Men from immigrant backgrounds are increasingly seeking help for problems with forced marriages, report two of the three Danish crisis centers for men, in Kolding and Copenhagen, and the Immigrants’ Advisers in Århus.

At the Immigrants’ Advisers in Århus the leader, Leif Randeris, says that arranged marriages are becoming an increasing problem, also for the men, as the descendents of immigrants are integrated into the Danish society.

Integration before tradition

- - - - - - - - -

“Having been born in Denmark, having had a Danish education and holding a job at Danish workplace, they increasingly form their own opinion that they want to live their own lives and find their own wife. If they are then forced to marry someone from rural Turkey, it is a retrograde step from the way they live and the behavior they have adopted,” says Leif Randeris.

The leader of the Immigrants’ Advisers further explains that forced marriages traditionally have been easier to accept for men than for women, because the dowry and the connections involved have contributed to the family’s social survival.

In Denmark, such forced marriages have led to several cases of “honour killing” or violence, towards women as well as men.

Neither the crisis centers or Immigrants’ Advisers organization maintain statistics concerning men in forced marriages.