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: U.S. Department of State

Publication: February 27th, 2005

This section of the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual outlines the U.S. response to citizens facing or fleeing forced marriage overseas.

Author: Rachel Vogelstein, Council on Foreign Relations

Publication: May 2013

This report examines the issue of child marriage globally and argues that the effects of this practice are harmful not only to girls, but also to families, communities, and economies, as well as to U.S. interests around the globe.

Author: Julia Alanen, Global Justice Initiative

Publication: 2011

This chart provides a guide to the legal age of consent to marry, the legal age to marry with parental consent, the legal age for sexual consent, as well as other important legal standards for each state in the United States.