Revealed: Full extent of West Midlands' forced marriage shame

Today we talk to one woman who knows the full horror of forced wedlock, Jasvinder Sanghera.

Her mother, a devout Sikh, controlled every aspect of her six daughters' lives, from their appearance to who they would marry.

Having watched two of her sisters taken out of school and married off to strangers in India, it was her turn.

She was 14 years old.

"They were taken into the front room, sat down and shown a photograph of the man they had to marry.

"Then my mother and whichever one of my sisters it was would almost have a conversation with the photograph and, with my mother talking about men for the first time, my sisters would feel excited and the centre of attention.

"I took one look at the photograph and I just thought: he's shorter than me, I'm not marrying him."

A forced marriage is where one or both people do not consent to the marriage and pressure or abuse is used.

It is an appalling and indefensible practice and is recognised in the UK as a form of violence against women and men, child abuse and a serious abuse of human rights.

The pressure put on people to marry against their will can be physical, including threats, actual physical violence and sexual violence.

There can also be emotional and psychological abuse such as making someone feel like they're bringing shame on their family.

The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Home Office unit was which set up in January 2005.

It operates both inside the UK, where support is provided to any individual, and overseas, where consular assistance is provided to British nationals, including dual nationals.

The FMU operates a public helpline to provide advice and support to victims of forced marriage as well as to professionals dealing with cases.

The assistance provided ranges from simple safety advice, through to aiding a victim to prevent their unwanted spouse moving to the UK, and, in extreme circumstances, to rescues of victims held against their will overseas.

The FMU undertakes an extensive outreach and training programme of around 100 events a year, targeting both professionals and potential victims. It also carries out media campaigns, such as 2012's 'right to choose' summer campaign, which saw the unit commission three short films to raise awareness amongst young people at risk of being taken overseas for forced marriage.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 makes it a criminal offence to force someone to marry This includes taking someone overseas to force them to marry, and marrying someone who lacks the mental capacity to consent to the marriage.

In the civil courts, you can also obtain a Forced Marriage Protection Order. Breaching a Forced Marriage Protection Order is also a criminal offence.

Aneeta Prem, founder of Freedom charity, which exists to educate young people about forced marriage, said: "I am delighted that the government has taken action to criminalise forced marriage.

"In the most tragic cases, people forced into marriage become domestic slaves by day and sexual slaves by night.

"Everyone should have the freedom to choose."

Dr Ash Chand, the NSPCC's strategy head for minority ethnic children said: "The change in the law to make forced marriage a crime in England and Wales is a huge step forward which we hope will deter those plotting against their own children.

"Many young people who call our ChildLine service about this issue are frightened, concerned and feel control of their lives is being wrenched from them.!

Refusing the marriage made the weeks that followed very tough for her. She was locked in her room while her parents continued to plan the wedding regardless. As flights were booked and dresses ordered, Jasvinder fled aged 16 to live with her boyfriend, Jassey, who would go on to become her first husband.

The act of defiance would cut her off from the rest of her family forever. She said: "I had been taken out of school because my family was worried I would say something about the marriage it was planning for me.

"My family said I could come home if I did what they said and went through with the marriage – or from that day forward I was dead in their eyes. This is one of the reasons I feel so strongly about criminalising forced marriage; I was the victim but I was made to feel as if I'd done something wrong."

Several years later in 1989, there was a further turning point.

Her sister Robina, feeling trapped in an abusive marriage, killed herself by setting herself on fire.

The suicide ultimately saw Jasvinder found the charity Karma Nirvana in 1993, which offers services and support to young women and men who are victims of so-called honour-based abuse in the UK.

Last week we revealed the shocking scale of forced marriage in the Black Country and the West Midlands.

There was 399 calls for help from victims of forced marriage in the West Midlands to Karma Nirvana last year. Since January, there have been a further 213 calls to date. Police figures revealed that there were 85 cases flagged up of suspected forced marriages in the past five years.

The Forced Marriage Unit – a specialist team from the Home Office and Foreign Office – says the region is the second worst in the country.

It is estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 people in the UK are forced into a marriage – 30 per day.

Victims are often raped, beaten and forced into slavery. They are also often young girls who are taken abroad by their families to marry strangers.

The government made forced marriage illegal last year and last week a 34-year-old man from Wales was jailed under the first conviction of its kind.

Jasvinder was instrumental in campaigning for the law.Work through her charity has seen her become a regular visitor to the Black Country, attending information and awareness events in Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell and working with local councils. She said: "Because of this conviction, the likelihood of victims reporting to professionals is higher now.

"What the Government needs to do is have a mass?awareness campaign so victims and professionals know the law exists."

"What's really worrying is that the Forced Marriage Unit has been repatriating British subjects taken abroad to be forced into marriage – but not securing convictions. They are rescuing these people in their hundreds and a third of the cases involved under-17s.

Jasvinder was born and brought up in Derby during the 1970s and 1980s in what appeared to be a conventional British-Sikh family. Her father had moved to the UK from Punjab in the 1950s and found work in the local foundry.

But life at home was very different. She has written two books, Shame, and Daughters of Shame about her experiences.

As a result of speaking out about practices, which are witnessed among Muslims and Sikhs, she has faced public abuse and even death threats in her bid to expose the rigid system of family honour that is at the root of such marriages.

She said: "Some families in these communities operate on an honour system that is tied in with the way daughters behave, so mixing with boys can be dishonourable. Refusing an arranged marriage, having a mobile phone or wearing make-up, these can all be seen as shameful."

Jasvinder's work has seen her act as a consultant and expert witness in cases of forced marriage. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to victims of forced marriage and honour-based violence.

But her mission is not over.

She said: "I'm worried that there are many cases known that are not being followed up. This failure to deal with this as a crime could be because of a fear being called racist.

"It is important we recognise that one conviction in a year, in comparison with the hundreds of cases that are known, is not enough."

If you are a victim of forced marriage you can call the Karma Nirvana helpline on 0800 5999247.