This webinar features Heather Heiman and Casey Swegman from the Forced Marriage Initiative at the Tahirih Justice Center. The webinar presents an overview of the nature and scope of forced marriage in the United States, as well as a discussion of the complex social and cultural dynamics and the unique challenges of problem-solving and safety-planning in such cases. The webinar also provides guidance on how to better screen for and identify potential warning signs and indicators of forced marriage within the populations you serve and best practices for providing culturally responsive services.

This webinar features Bushra Husain and Sayoni Maitra from Sanctuary for Families and Jamal Alsarraj from the Arab American Family Support Center. The webinar provides an overview on how to identify and respond to forced marriage situations in your current caseloads and outreach work. The presenters revisit commonly accepted definitions of “forced marriage,” “arranged marriage,” and “love marriage,” and explore shifting dynamics in intimate partner relationships in existing legal and social services cases. The webinar also covers best practices for addressing forced marriage situations that occur alongside or arise in the context of other forms of violence, such as domestic violence, trafficking, sexual assault, and crimes against LGBTQ persons.
This webinar was first presented as part of the Forced Marriage Initiative’s Quarterly Webinar Series on February 26th, 2015.

Author: Jasvinder Sanghera

Publication: 2009

Daughters of Shame reveals the stories of young women such as Shazia, kidnapped and taken to Pakistan to marry a man she had never met. By turns frightening, enthralling and uplifting, Daughters of Shame reveals Jasvinder as a woman heedless of her own personal safety as she fights to help these women, in a world where the suffering and abuse of many is challenged by the courage of the few.

Author: Jasvinder Sanghera

Publication: 2011

With her own daughter about to marry, Jasvinder Sanghera decides to challenge thirty years of rejection by going to India herself. She wants to explore her roots and to see for herself the place her parents called home until the day they died. What she finds in India and what she learns changes the way she sees the world, and has important lessons for all of us. Shame Travels is not only a gripping and revealing quest, but also an inspirational journey of the heart.

Author: Jasvinder Sanghera

Publication: 2007

When she was fourteen, Jasvinder Sanghera was shown a photo of the man chosen to be her husband. She was terrified. She’d witnessed the torment her sisters endured in their arranged marriages, so she ran away from home, grief-stricken when her parents disowned her. Shame is the heart-rending true story of a young girl’s attempt to escape from a cruel, claustrophobic world where family honor mattered more than anything – sometimes more than life itself.