Forced Marriage
Although prohibited by law, rural inhabitants continued the traditional practice of kidnapping women and girls for forced marriage. During the year there were 35 reported cases of forced marriage, but the actual figure may have been much higher. In 23 of these cases, the investigations resulted in convictions of 33 individuals. Cultural traditions discouraged victims from going to the authorities. IOM financed and trained NGOs to maintain antitrafficking hot lines, using toll-free numbers provided by the government, to help potential and actual trafficking victims. The IOM established hot lines, staffed by lawyers and social workers, in each province during June and July 2006. The State Committee for Migration and Employment (SCME) provided free-of-charge office space for the IOM-sponsored hot line staff. The IOM, together with the SCME, continued a countrywide antitrafficking information campaign, including awareness advertisements on television, radio, and billboards.
Read more about this topic: Women In Kyrgyzstan
Famous quotes containing the words forced and/or marriage:
“For in all the world there are no people so piteous and forlorn as those who are forced to eat the bitter bread of dependency in their old age, and find how steep are the stairs of another man’s house. Wherever they go they know themselves unwelcome. Wherever they are, they feel themselves a burden. There is no humiliation of the spirit they are not forced to endure. Their hearts are scarred all over with the stabs from cruel and callous speeches.”
—Dorothy Dix (1861–1951)
“Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, “What will you have, sir?” And I said, “A glass of hemlock.””
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)