UK Doctor Drugged, Forced To Wed In Bangladesh

LONDON — Britain's High Court issued an order Friday preventing a London-based doctor from being removed from the U.K. without her consent after her parents forced her into an arranged marriage in Bangladesh.

Humayra Abedin, 32, returned to Britain on Tuesday, days after a Bangladeshi court in Dhaka ordered her parents to cooperate with a British injunction and allow her to return to England if she wishes. After telling the court she wished to leave, she was escorted to the British High Commission where her return to London was arranged.

Abedin said that while in Bangladesh, she was forced to marry a man her parents chose.

Her lawyer, Anne-Marie Hutchinson, said she is working to nullify that marriage, and that British courts have the power to invalidate the marriage because Abedin is a U.K. resident.

Hutchinson said the marriage was only on paper; though the ceremony took place, the couple never lived together and the marriage was not consummated.

High Court Judge Paul Coleridge said Friday that marrying without consent was "a complete aberration of the whole concept of marriage in a civilized society."

Abedin has lived in Britain since 2002 but returned to Bangladesh in August after hearing that her mother was very sick.

On arriving at her parents' home in Dhaka, Abedin said she was manhandled and locked in a room. She said her passport, tickets and other documents were taken and that she was drugged. She said she managed to send a few text messages seeking help from people in Britain before her cell phone was taken.

Abedin said on Aug. 13, she was forced into an ambulance and taken to a psychiatric clinic, where she said she was held for months and medicated against her will. She said she was told she would not be discharged unless she promised not to return to Britain.

Abedin said she remained at the clinic until Nov. 5, when she was taken to a property in Jessore, where she secretly managed to send some e-mails seeking aid.

On Nov. 14, Abedin says she was taken to another house and forced into a marriage ceremony with Dr. Khondokar Mohammad Abdul Jalal. Afterward she was taken back to the property in Jessore without Jalal, and was eventually returned to Dhaka.

Outside the High Court in London on Friday, Abedin said her ordeal as very difficult but she was happy to be free.

"I'd like to get back to my normal life," she said. Asked what message she had for other women facing similar situations, Abedin said, "Don't give up hope. There is hope."

Comments

[historymatters]

I don't think it's fair to say that Islam alone is responsible for how women are treated in some societies. It also isn't fair to write off entire societies just because large segments of their populations are poor, uneducated, often illiterate, and ill equipped to confront rapid social change. Charles Dickens wrote that the greatest enemies of humanity are poverty and ignorance. This is true of every society, in every corner of the world. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't really that long ago that so-called witches were being burned in Salem, Massachusetts. Americans should not be so quick to write off other cultures, or to declare them "too backward" to bother with. This is especially true when any survey of the average low-information American tells you how many of us don't know how many planets are in our solar system, what a quadratic equation is, who the Secretary of State is, where Ecuador is located, etc., etc., etc. One of the best solutions to battling poverty and ignorance is education. Education gives people the tools they need to think for themselves, work for themselves, feed themselves, and make up their own minds about how they want to live. If the United States focused our foreign aid efforts on education of all types instead of bombs and guns, the benefits would be impossible to tally.

[Sneakerface]

I urge everyone who was moved by this story to read "Infidel," by Ayaan Hirsi-Ali. She was born in Somalia, moved to Saudi Arabia, and after another move, her father arranged a marriage for her to a stranger against her will . She fled and got citizenship in the Netherlands, and later became a member of Parliament there. She rejected Islam and is an atheist and outspoken activist for rights of women.

[TruthAndTheory]

That is my favorite book!

[NevaforLeadership]

Another excellent book about Islamism is "The Islamist" by Ed Husain, once a leader in the British Islamist movement, now a follower of the true Islam.

It will scare the living daylight out of you; and if you don't think what is happening in Britain is not happening in America, then fool you.

[Big0725]

Just when you think that maybe, just maybe, people have gotten their crap together, I read this and wonder what the fu*k are you people thinking?

Forced marriage? Is this the fu*king 9th century?

[TruthAndTheory]

well, arranged marriages are everyday occurences in India, and many Muslim societies. This woman is educated, and was able to speak out. There are 10-year-old girls being forced into marriages with 50-year old men, because their parents need money. This is nothing new. But this doctor is lucky to be back in the UK, where she can fight her case better.

[synergie]

The problem here is not that it was an arranged marriage (which even in India has both age restrictions and requires consent), but that she was kidnapped, institutionalized, drugged and then married off. Her education isn't what saved her, it was the fact that she was a 32 year old woman who was smart and lucky enough to be able to contact someone with that could and would help her.

[Sarahjan]

Your latent, perhaps unmeant anti-Muslim proclivities prevent you from understanding the difference between tricked into the country and physically into drugged into an arranged marriage. There is no evidence to support that she sustained bodily harm. The female doctor in question was tricked coming back from the UK to her native land by her parents. She was then forced marrying somebody founded by her parents. She was able to escape this horrible arranged marriage finally and she is free now. This is not a Muslim thing but a traditional thing; but of course, Huffpost does not bother to make this distinction. If this was to mark Muslim tradition as ahistorical and barbaric, still this horrible practice beats extraordinary renditions of the US state. Finally, this horrible practice has been challenged not only by British law but local groups are resisting it as well.

[Ichor]

And, these nations with those kinds of cultural practices still suck up aid from the west? What are we thinking? That we can fix them? Forget it. Until they can pull themselves out of their Dark Ages cultures, let them die in their thousands. It leaves more of the world's resources for those of us who deserve it. Bangladesh needs every ounce of brainpower it can muster, yet it marginilizes half of it - it's women. The country is a cultural and intellectual swamp. Let it die. It seems intent on suicide anyway.

[synergie]

um wow. I mean seriously wow. What exactly is the link between aid and the actions of one psychotic family?

And hon, look into a mirror first (or at least run yourself a check on your own statement) and turn on a TV, there you shall see the cultural and intellectual swampiness in the extreme. No one is asking you on any of you ilk to "fix" anything, that's just your own narcissism.

[TheMatrixCBC]

This is further proof that religion is the destructor of all things civil. I long for the day when Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all go the way of Greek and Roman polytheism, and we no long waste time and energy believing in tenets that do not exist.

[marew]

I could not agree with you more!

[NevaforLeadership]

Exactly,

As a child I felt enormous guilt for not being a good Christian, as a young adult, not ready to totally abandon the pack, I became an agnostic. As an older adult, no longer prepared to throw all common sense and reason to the wind, I am an atheist.

[Chaimirija]

right on

[redneckliberalpostbush]

I was drugged when I married a conservative TX man, too! But, sadly, I did it to myself. What a nightmare!

[Bariis]

Let's make it VERY CLEAR on this issue. It is a CULTURAL, behavioral thing that sadly some UNEDUCATED people adhere to. But is it not a RELIGION thing. I want people to find the apparent distinction between the two!

What a brave young woman!

[TruthAndTheory]

This happens mainly in Hindu, Muslim and Mormon communities. It doesn't happen to everyone in all those communities of course, so you're right there. But these partifular families are always religious, and do this because it's part of their religion, which is intertwined with tradition.

It's different, but not that distinct. A non-religious person is not likely to be this fiercely traditional, because if they were, they'd be religious as well! I feel like the two go hand-in-hand.

[SwingVoter]

"...and the marriage was not consummated." Very important!

[Somali4Obama]

But, let me clarify some things for you, Sutungpo.

1.Actually the man happens to be of the same ethnicity, he just so happens to have an Arab name. My name is Hebrew, and I am not Jewish.

2.Quoting opportunist, non-Muslims to begin with like Rushdie is void. Therefore, your second point is lost. Saudi Arabia is a nation of customs, not of religion. They do not give citizenship or allow people to attend schools (children of both genders) who are not pure breed Saudis. Favoritism and classicism is against the teachings of Islam.

3.The Quran does not say anything about virgins in the afterlife. Polygamy is not something that is encouraged, but gives men choices in acquiring four wives, if they can afford to take care of all of them equally. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) began this tradition by caring for women whose husbands died in battle. One word for you FEMINISM. Why do you think it exists? Because, women in this country have and still do feel derelict. Every culture has treated women secondary.

4.Genital Mutilation is not apart of Islam, it is again customs. People in the jungles of Africa, who have never heard of Islam, do that.

[nfstern]

Point 2. The implication seems to be than non-Muslim opinions don't count. Or should I write opportunist non-Muslims? In the last sentence, I believe the word you are looking for is classism. and, historically, there's been plenty of classism against non-Muslims in Islam.

Point 3 (from an English translation)
72 # There are houris, ( virgins of paradise ) confined in tents,
73 # which then, of the favours of your Lord will you deny?
74 # Neither man nor jinn have touched them before.
Hmm, not touched by man or jinn b4. Seems like it quacks like a duck to me.

Point 4
Genital mutilation occurs in countries in Africa that do NOT have jungles and most assuredly HAVE heard of Islam.

[Bariis]

Point 4
A little history on FGM first came from Pharaoh. And we know he was a malicious and a vile man who abused his wives and treated them as sexual properties. He also despised, enslaved and persecuted anyone and everyone who did not bow to him and treated him as a God. That would include Muslims and Jews. I mean I could go on about this since I'm very passionate about this topic.

[LaMees]

I think what Somali4Obama was trying to say was that regions in Africa that are animist as well as Christian, practice Genital Mutilation, in all its forms, as there are several. Genital Mutilation is strictly a cultural manifestation that has been in practice well before the formation of any of the three great monotheistic faiths.

[Bariis]

Good read and well-put!

[Lenyon]

Not true Nigerian muslims are among muslims pratice this obscure Hadith

[MorpheusXNYC]

So you're saying that Islam is not the cause of these abominations. That is is simply the result of a hopelessly backwards and barbaric culture?

Ahh. I gotcha. I understand now. Glad you cleared that up before we jumped to some wrong conclusions.

[NevaforLeadership]

When did Mohammed live? Was it slightly less than 2,000 years ago?

We don't stick to a flat world. We don't stick to the planets and sun orbiting the earth. Intelligent people don't stick to a supernatural God. Intelligent people know that, as we become more civilized, educated and sophisticated, traditions evolve to fit the times.

[mlaiuppa]

I think her parents can forget about ever seeing their daughter again. She'll ever go back. Not if Mom's sick. Not even if she's dead.

[Bariis]

She clearly learned her lesson.

[Frenbar]

Any time you are able to convince someone that there is an all powerful invisible magic man(or men, as the case may be) in the sky, there's nothing you can't convince them to do.

[QueenOfViolets]

Stalin was an atheist and he convinced people to inform on each other to the KGB and he killed more people than any religion ever killed.

[JARIBU]

And how does Stalin's atheism negate Fresbar's statements? Those that Stalin duped into following his ways were not exempt from the ravages of previous religious indoctrinations:
The Soviet Union was a collection of states who, before being incorporated into the union in the early part of the 20th century, believed in and practiced different religions.

[NevaforLeadership]

I think you'll find that over the decades, Christianity has been the cause of far more deaths than Stalin was, despite the many millions for which Stalin was responsible.

[SaintRidley]

Stalin never had people killed in the name of atheism. His atheism was inconsequential to his killing.

[MorpheusXNYC]

Exactly.

[Chaimirija]

I implore anyone on this board to go to your local ER and tell them a very powerful magic man is watching their every move and see if you don't get a 72 hour hold

[DANOSC]

I wonder how the American Taliban--the fundie Christians, the Mormons--rationalize this "traditional" view of marriage? After all, it is one man one woman. Oh, I know they'd be against it. But, not too long ago, just was the "norm" even among Christians. People married not for love, but simply to procreate and provide workers for the farm or family enterprise. Primarily, the woman was simply a human incubator for offspring. So, if in the Bangladeshi culture this sort of marriage is traditional, shouldn't we Americans stop with the faux outrage. I mean many in the US expect the rest of us to accept what they consider to be traditional marriage. Are the Bangladeshi to be considered wrong because their construct of traditional marriage isn't ours?

[Hattie]

The point is, does the woman get to choose?

[IndependentBadger]

Uhh...YES.

I hate to break this to you: our "construct of marriage" allows women to think of themselves as human beings, and as adults with the right to decide who they will literally be WEDDED to until death or divorce.

That is much better. Why are liberals so terrified of admitting that other cultures can be backwards, hateful, ignorant, failures? You happen to be very selective, too, about your assessment of the validity of other cultures.

I don't hear liberals walking around saying we should give German national socialist marriage culture "another shot", just because it's another culture.

Most of us have simply come to the correct conclusion that nazi domestic culture was, quite simply, barbarous.

Forced marriage is wrong. Period. And quit throwing around PC euphemisms. Use reason to defend it. Cultures aren't inherently equal. You don't have to be a nazi or republican to realize that. I am ALWAYS gonna be grateful my sisters aren't living in Saudi Arabia. You probably would be too, if it affected YOUR family. If Bangladeshi culture can't handle criticism of its flaws, it's not much of a culture anyways, is it?

[walk0nwalls]

So let me get this straight, your world is the best of all worlds, the best that the world can ever be this is the best of all worlds?

Your belief system is the best of all belief systems the best that it can ever be?

Understand his point to be this: just as we look upon the Bangladeshi traditional version of marriage to be foreign and unnatural, so too do we look upon purported "christians" denying the right of other people to marry just because of sexual orientation to be foreign and unnatural. Understand that to an outsider's and an insider's view, traditional is not always best, no one has certified that "American traditional" is best. And it is most certainly not "best"

So deal.

[NevaforLeadership]

DANOSC,

Stop trying to justify these barbaric traditions. This is the 21st Century. What is more, this woman was kidnapped and forced into this farce of a marriage. She didn't go along with the tradition.

In my view, we in the west should also have zero tolerance for all such traditions, including wearing the hijab, niqab, burqa or any other kind of clothing used to victimize and subjugate women in the name of religion.

The argument given is that women want to wear these clothes. Then I say, in the west, let women wear these garments if they choose to do so outside schools, universities and the workplace, but impose strict, legal consequences on any man who coerces any women to wear them in the name or religion or otherwise. Believe me, that would bring a quick end to the traditions.

This has nothing to do with freedom of religion; it has to do with using religion and traditions as covers for victimizing women.

We are two faced; don't have the guts to say NO to these barbaric customs; then cry wolf when a woman is kidnapped to marry the man of her parents' choice.

[mmerose]

Hey, Obama, invite this mullah to your inaugural! We are being inclusive, right? We support "traditional" marriage, right? Somebody tell me where we draw the line.....

[NevaforLeadership]

mmerose,

What on earth does Obama have to do with this? We all know where you are trying to lead us with your twisted, ignorant thinking. I say, "ignorant" because Barack Obama is not a Muslim; because this incident happened to a British citizen.

Why don't you get involved, yourself. Run for office and fight the good fight. Start by including in your platform zero tolerance to these cruel, archaic traditions in the US. Let us see how much courage you have, when the liberals and religious right start fighting you.

[mmerose]

I see where the balderdash about Obama being a Muslim contributed to misunderstanding. I definitely was not leading there!
I was mocking Obama's excuses for bringing in Warren for the inaugural. Inclusiveness and religious tolerance, amounting to tolerance for the intolerant. Any number of religious practitioners invidious to me would claim they were standing up for what they thought was "traditional" marriage.
Not sure I understand your suggestion in 2d paragraph. I certainly would stand against the "cruel, archaic" traditions. The religious right would certainly fight me, as I am a proud, happy atheist.

[Littlewords]

Why are you desperately trying to link in Obama to this? Guess it comes from being yet another right wing nut job!

BTW--Your view point is where we draw the line. It is so dumb and laughable it supposes Obama's agenda is full inclusiveness of all things rather than being the rational, intelligent leader for inclusiveness per the standards of democracy and the US constitution. Please remember, his Harvard degree is in constitutional law.

So sad to see how bitterness blinds rational thought in some people. Sadder to see irrational and desperate off mark postings by those same bitter losers.

[mmerose]

Glad I came back to this. Misunderstanding is seldom so complete. Hope you are getting emailed your responses - I gotta start! I was mocking Obama's excuses for Rick Warren, pointing out that the same excuses could be used for having all kinds of unpleasant religious affiliates for the inaugural. Obama linked himself to Rick Warren, of which I do disapprove. I would disapprove more of the mullah, but the same arguments could, indeed, be made: we owe the mullah religious tolerance and he is standing up for what he thinks is traditional marriage.

Peace, littlewords, I think you'll be very comfortable with most of my posts.

[Chaimirija]

yeah like georges friend in saudi arabia treat their women nad children all nicey nice

[loosely coupled]

arranged/forced marriages, women as property, "honor killings".... I know the evangelicals are backwards, but my god these people are literally still in the dark ages!

[goodog]

I went to school with a Jehovah's Witness girl who ended up in an arranged marriage to one of our public schoolteachers not long after graduation.

We were all like, whoa, didn't see that coming.