Author: Promundo: Alice Taylor, Giovanna Lauro, Marcio Segundo, & Margaret Greene

Publication: July, 2015

This study – the first of its kind in Brazil – explores attitudes and practices around child and adolescent marriage in the two Brazilian states with the highest prevalence of the practice, according to the 2010 Census, namely Pará in the north and Maranhão in the northeast. The study examines local attitudes and practices, as well as risk and protective factors, around child and adolescent marriage in the capital cities in these two states. It looks at both formal and informal unions (i.e., co-habitation), as the latter are the most prevalent forms of child and adolescent marriage in Brazil yet hold similar implications as formal marriages. The analysis highlights the ways in which a child or adolescent marriage may create or exacerbate risk factors (i.e., related to health, education, security) while often being perceived by girls or family members as offering stability in settings of economic insecurity and limited opportunities.

Author: Create Youth Network – Joanne Hemmings, PhD (Options) & and Saria Khalifa (FORWARD)

Publication: November, 2013

This report presents the results of three Participatory Ethnographic Evaluation Research (PEER) studies, carried out as part of the CREATE Youth-Net project, which aims to safeguard young people in three European countries (the United Kingdom, Portugal and the Netherlands) from harmful practices, in particular Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage. A total of 82 respondents took part and interviews covered a range of themes, including migration experiences, gender and social norms, notions of cultural identity, and harmful practices including
FGM and forced marriage.

Author: Anthony Marcus (John Jay College of Criminal Justice) in partnership with the AHA Foundation

Publication: 2015

Drawing on interviews from a purposive sample of 100 City University of New York students, this study documents the presence of intergenerational conflict over honor, sexuality, and marital choice within MENASA migrant communities with the goal of assessing whether forced marriage is a problem in the United States.

Author: Interights – The International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights

Publication: 1st Edition 2011, 2nd Edition 2014

This Handbook brings together expert commentaries by lawyers and activists working on the issue of forced marriages and interference with choice in marriage in four different countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom. The Handbook is intended to assist those seeking legal remedies in such cases, and in particular to prevent forced marriages, and protect those affected. While aimed primarily at lawyers, we hope that it will also be useful for voluntary sector workers, social workers and women’s rights advocates and activists seeking to identify available legal remedies.

Author: Pomegranate Tree Group

Publication: 2012 (1st Edition); 2014 (2nd Edition)

This graphic novel tells the stories of South Asian women from a diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds who encounter resistance from their families for how women choose to live their lives. The stories address challenges of expectations women face when they move away from home, choose partners of their own, come to terms with their sexuality and discuss sexual abuse, and find their own understanding of spirituality and religious beliefs.