Centring migrant community voices in forced marriage prevention social policy: A proposed reframing

Abstract

In this article, we examine how young adult Muslim Australian women from immigrant families are navigating familial pressures around marriage, and what this can teach the forced marriage prevention sector about the importance of privileging community voices in its educational approach. Through an ethnographic approach that focuses on two women's recent experiences with social and cultural expectations around marriage, we argue that their strategies serve the prevention sector in the following ways: (1) they put into question the perpetrator-victim binary and official government warning signs, which suggest that coercive practices around marriage inherently render the family as a site of violence, and young adults as lacking the power to navigate these familial relationships; and (2) they reveal that young adult immigrant women see pressures around marriage through the prisms of collective care, sociality and the potential transformation and strengthening of familial bonds despite past experiences of social pressure.

Learning from Lived Experience: Australia’s Legal Response to Forced Marriage

“…However, legal remedies may not always serve the objectives or needs of people at risk of forced marriage and some may struggle to make sense of their experiences and relationships within the legal framework to address forced marriage. 197 Consultations with survivors should inform the development of a range of preventative and protective strategies and pay close attention to the outcomes people at risk of forced marriage want to achieve. Programs that seek to understand the perspectives of survivors must be appropriately resourced and should inform strategies to protect the autonomy and safety of people who do not want to be involved in criminal or civil proceedings, 198 community-led prevention initiatives, training for frontline responders, 199 and in what circumstances support services should be withdrawn or alternative support options presented.…”