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  • Carol Grady

    Thank you for highlighting the work of the Tahirih Justice Center! Ms. Miller-Muro was barely out of law school when she began this work and it's wonderful to see her organization recognized for its contribution to women's rights and safety.

  • seasonya

    "A year ago, Lina says her parents took her to Yemen, claiming her
    grandmother was gravely ill. But once she was there, Lina's father
    announced that she would be getting married to a local man, despite her
    objections."

    The US is not Yemen- we can not stop people from doing such things in foreign countries. And for all the people claiming it happens in every state- they would have produced several stories if they had such evidence- the fact they can only highlight one case- that occurred in YEMEN means their claims are just that- claims- much like the UVA claims

  • Thomas Jefferson II

    If you'd read past the first couple of paragraphs, you'd have seen this, with a link to the results:

    "The Tahirih Justice Center has documented forced marriage in almost every U.S. state, among communities with ties to dozens of countries and across many religions."

    Not that it would have elicited anything but a denial.

  • freedumb sings

    Most america forced marriage happens when a mom want to be VP for McCain and her precious gets knocked up in a Alaskan high school

  • Lucilletheguitar

    And what marriage did that result in?

  • David Moyer

    C'mon, Tom, be reasonable - you actually expect him to read the WHOLE article? Gad . . .

  • whysenhymer

    Freedom of religion.

  • Thomas Jefferson II

    Not sure if serious...
    Freedom means all parties are consenting. At least in the USA.

  • seasonya

    And we have had laws on the books for decades to ensure just that.

  • Thomas Jefferson II

    We have laws against murder, too. I guess that's why our murder rate is zero...

    If you'd bothered to read their source article, you'd see that it's still happening in spite of any laws.

  • Badgerbabe

    Talking about this issue isn't going to help anyone. What WILL have an effect, is if the parent/s who force their daughters into an arranged marriage, after bringing them here, bringing them up as American's, then wanting to force their backward and disgusting FORMER homelands practices on their girls... be arrested, charged and publicly humiliated. Now THAT would send a message to these "parents". We don't allow the other NORMAL things that happen in their former countries to go on, like cutting off hands, beheadings, stonings, genital mutilations... These people need to UNDERSTAND that if they WANT to live in the USA, then they can NOT bring THOSE PRACTICES here.

  • Zannah Merrill

    Female circumcision actually still happens here, FYI.

  • madelyne

    Sure does. I recently read an excellent article about a physician who works to extract the scar tissue created during circumcision to attempt to bring some sexual functionality to these women.

    Similar to forced marriage, often the girl is sent back to the family's country under the pretense of going on holiday, and then circumcised there - and then lives in shame upon her arrival back to the U.S.

  • Oliver Angus

    The story had a perfectly reasonable and inexpensive solution. "The cost of a bullet is less than a dollar,"

    If you force a woman into marriage/slavery, you are of no use to humanity.

    I might just be cranky today.

  • SadieLee

    Right on.

  • seasonya

    "genital mutilations"

    Yet the non consentual genital mutilation of US males occurring every day is of no concern to the "equality" minded on here

  • Kathleen W

    You do realize that the difference between what is done to girls and what is done to boys is huge, don't you? If not, please google it. Whatever you may feel about circumcision, and many do object to it, it can't be equated to female genital mutilation.

  • Geraldine Merola

    Sounds like they took a little too much "off the top" in your case!

  • seasonya

    They have two examples: one is in Yemen- the other is from the program leader complaining about her marriage- a marriage she had every law backing her to leave- and a marriage she entered as an adult with every option to not go through with it.

    Again- if this is the best they can do for example's to cite their argument then they have a very very weak claim.
    And I will remind you- it was not long ago you and others were attacking me for pointing out that the UVA stories were likely false. And how did that turn out?

  • Kathleen W

    "a marriage she had every law backing her to leave- and a marriage she entered as an adult with every option to not go through with it."
    You are talking about legal rights. The forced marriages in the US are done by societal/family/religious indoctrination and pressure. She did not have a choice under her upbringing and religion. It apparently took quite a few years for her to overcome that and leave.

  • seasonya

    "feeling" pressured is not the same thing as what occures in places like Yemen- the one example

  • Stephen Hibbard

    Well, even more, the law is of no consequence to a practitioner of the bullet to the brain solution.

  • Thomas Jefferson II

    I already posted this one and you ignored it:

    "The Tahirih Justice Center has documented forced marriage in almost every U.S. state, among communities with ties to dozens of countries and across many religions."

    The word "documented" is hyperlinked in the article to a report documenting dozens of cases in the US. Please tell me, individually, why each of those cases are wrong. Otherwise, stop the denial.

    "...you and others were attacking me for pointing out that the UVA stories were likely false."

    Wrong again. That's a completely false accusation against me. Prove I ever said one word to you about UVA, or apologize. You can't because I didn't.

  • seasonya

    Yet they have no evidence- you seem to not understand one case in Yemen does not substantiate claims of thousands of forced marriages occuring in the US. IN fact it shows that they have NO examples other than one that happened in YEMEN

  • Thomas Jefferson II

    "Yet they have no evidence..."
    The linked report in the article documents cases in 47 US states.

    What's incorrect in those claims? Be specific, please.

  • madelyne

    I also provided seasonya a link to the U.S. Department of State., but I think they're too consumed with anti-female rhetoric to recognize the data right in front of them.

  • Thomas Jefferson II

    He's told his story before. Raised by strong, strict women, and an ex-wife for whom he blames all his problems. Sad, really.

  • Thevian

    You sound like an apologist for these fundamentalist religious people. I bet you're a fundamentalist.

  • seasonya

    sorry to disappoint- I am a pot smoking atheist who thinks the world is likely a digital program

  • Red Beard

    There is no spoon

  • brynaw

    It's complicated, isn't it?

  • whysenhymer

    See username.

  • willrichter

    I wonder if there were flowers at the wedding? I'm sure the parents told the florist the flowers were for a forced marriage.

  • ben balz

    Freedom of wacko religions to abuse women. Well, that's been going on forever and now it's enough to get the Goode Olde USA under the slyly racist/classist moniker "goats and soda" which is usually reserved for Ebola-afflicted countries.

  • David Moyer

    Knock it off, Ben.

  • john i

    from*

  • whysenhymer

    If only

  • seasonya

    yet they have no examples to prove their claim. the best they have - occurred in Yemen

  • brynaw

    The US example in the article is an Orthodox Jewish woman; but it happens amongst other religious groups too. There are a few autobiographies out these days by women who were married at 13 or 14 to men in the Mormon sects that still do polygamy, and who had to escape. A few years ago a clergyman from that church was arrested because he had 3 or 5 wives and some of them were under age.
    To my mind it bears similarities to the way some families force their daughters into prostitution.

  • Holly

    The FLDS groups who practice polygamy are NOT a Mormon sect. They left the Mormon church long ago and no longer have anything to do with it. Polygamy is not currently a practice in the Mormon church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Just wanted to clear that up.

  • AQ

    The LDS followers always try and separate themselves from their strange, cultish history..you still have your main University named after a major polygamist, Brigham Young

  • Nevada Transplant

    Just wondering, would you be willing to support legal polygamy/polyandry between consenting adults?...

  • Geraldine Merola

    Not unless they waived all their rights to claim social assistance! One man can barely provide for one woman and her kids nowadays. It's the taxpayers who will end up supporting the other "wives" and all their children! If you can practice your religion without my financial help, then you can have at it!

  • Nevada Transplant

    You're assuming that polygamy/polyandry automatically would lead to poverty and welfare, which is fallacious. But even if it were so, why can't those women be like the majority of the women in America and get jobs, too?...

  • Geraldine Merola

    Hey, I'm sure there are one or two millionaire business executives that can afford to work and give birth to 8 or 10 kids- but most of these polygamous women are married at 16 and start pumping out babies from the start. She could work every waking moment of the day and she won't earn enough to pay for herself never mind all the kids that God tells her she has to have!

  • Labyrinthia

    They follow the Book of Mormon, therefore are Mormon. There are several other non-LDS sects that are also Mormon.

  • joydb

    Holly, if you ask the FLDS, they say the are THE Mormon church. We all know how the FLDS came to be, but have you ever thought that the LDS has done more to fight Gay Marriage than it has done to fight polygamy. Not even a billboard. With all the money and power of the LDS, they could do a lot about educating those still stuck in polygamy. Since the LDS refuses to speak against the FLDS and polygamy, it's easy to get them confused.

  • tazwied

    I am so tired of hearing that flds is not a mormon sect, and that they (flds) "left the church". Actually, contempory mormons "left the church (flds)", and no longer have anything to do with it, for the only reason that utah could attain statehood. FLDS is MOST DEFINITELY a mormon sect. Contemporary mormons always deny this. Just wanted to clear that up.

  • Dave Cuthbert

    The FLDS is a sect within a cult.

  • Katrags

    Polygamy is not longer practiced because the Church wanted to become a state and they had to make it illegal to do so. That change was not for theological reasons. If it had not been for US law, polygamy would have been practiced for a much longer period.
    If the Muslims have to explain for their crazies that misinterpret their theology, so should the Mormons.