Types of Forced Marriage

The most common type of forced marriage occurs when parents or other family members force one or both of the participants into the marriage. This type of forced marriage is usually supported by the surrounding community, making it difficult to avoid or escape.

In this type of forced marriage, one or both of the participants to the marriage are forced into it by religious leaders, and supported by their religious community. In isolated communities, such as the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) in Bountiful, BC, the isolation ensures that those forced into these marriages have few or no outside ties, making avoidance or escape difficult.

Not all of these types of forced marriages take place in isolated communities. Some take place in the midst of crowded cities and because the adherents do not practice polygamy or dress differently, it may be more difficult for outsiders to spot.

In the upheaval of war and conflict, with the breakdown of law and government, women and girls may be forced to marry men on either side of the conflict. This has occurred recently in places such as the Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Historically it has happened globally with women being treated as “the spoils of war” to be raped, forced into prostitution, forced into marriage by the men who capture them, or given as rewards to higher ranking leaders.

There is a growing trade in the trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of forced marriage. This trade is most common in countries where the male to female ratio has been artificially altered through female-selective abortion¹ or female infanticide,² or through the adoption abroad of female children.

These forced marriages occur when a man decides he wants to marry a woman and colludes with his friends to kidnap her. In rural areas of Chechnya approximately 80% of women have been forced into marriage through kidnapping.

In a number of reported cases, girls have been adopted from abroad to serve as second or third wives in polygamous marriages. In most cases these girls are adopted from countries where child marriage and polygamy are common, so that the child may not understand that her marriage is not a legally binding marriage.

In these cases, a slave owner forces the slaves he inherits into marriages of the slave owner’s choosing. Although the slavery itself is illegal, lack of enforcement in some areas allows it to continue with all the attendant abuses.

In these cases, an abusive partner forces the other partner into marriage through the use of violence or threats of violence.

In these marriages a judge forces a couple to marry as a sentence, or an alternative sentence, for a crime. These marriages are not legal but those being forced to marry may not know this.