Jasvinder Sanghera is an activist and advocate for women's rights who was born in Derby. She is the co-founder of Karma Nirvana, a community-based project where several refuge centres across the United Kingdom serve as safe-housing for South Asian women fleeing forced marriages.[1] When faced with the prospect of a forced marriage herself, she ran away from home,[1] and she tells her story in her novelShame, published by Hodder and Stoughton and those of other British victims in her second novel Daughters of Shame.[2]
Sanghera's debut novel, Shame, is one where anecdotes are drawn from her own personal experiences where, when she was fourteen, was shown a photo of the man chosen to be her husband. She depicts a harrowing tale of violence, abuse and ostracism but ultimately, triumph over adversity. She appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2008 to discuss her experiences on the topic of forced marriages and she is now in her 40s, happily married and with three children, Lisa, Maria and Joshua. Due to her experiences with the stringent laws enforced upon daughters growing up, she ensures her own daughters have enough freedom and restrictions are not superfluous and thus allows them to date, experiment and find their own husbands.
[courtesy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasvinder_Sanghera ]
Social worker Shakuntala Verma had one hand severed and the other badly wounded in the attack on Tuesday.
State officials said she was trying to stop child marriages in Bhangarh village, 270km (170 miles) west of the state capital, Bhopal.
The practice is illegal but some rural children are still forcibly married.
Wednesday is Akha Teej, an auspicious Hindu day traditionally used in some rural areas as a date for child marriages.
Public awareness
A senior civil servant in Madhya Pradesh, P Ahuja, said the attack may have happened because villagers became irate over Ms Verma's comments on child marriages.
She had reportedly been in the village for four days campaigning against the practice.
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However, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur would not be drawn on the link between the attack and child marriages.
He said of the practice: "It is not possible to stop it. Have we been able to end alcoholism or untouchability? If Gandhi could not succeed in this, how can Babulal Gaur?"
District police chief, RN Borna, told the AFP agency the attack was carried out by the brother of a would-be child bride.
Ms Verma is being treated in hospital in the city of Indore.
Child marriages - girls under 18 and boys under 21 - are illegal in India.
Authorities in many rural areas have taken steps to prevent marriages on Akha Teej.
In the western state of Rajasthan, there has been a big public awareness campaign.
The parents of the children, the owner of the building where the marriage takes place and the priest conducting the ceremony can be arrested if a case is detected, activists say.
[ courtesy http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4536579.stm ]
[courtesy Nujood Ali was ten when her parents arranged a marriage to Faez Ali Thamer, a man in his thirties. Regularly beaten by her in-laws and rapedby her husband, Ali escaped on April 2, 2008, two months after the wedding. On the advice of her stepmother, she went directly to court to seek a divorce. After waiting for half a day, she was noticed by a judge, Mohammed al-ghadha, who took it upon himself to give her temporary refuge, and who had both her father and husband taken into custody.[6]
Shada Nasser agreed to defend Ali. For the lawyer, it was the continuation of a struggle begun with the installation of her practice in Sana'a, which she opened in the 1990s as the first Yemeni law office headed by a woman. She built her clientele by offering services to female prisoners.[5]
[ courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nujood_Ali ]
- child marriages are everywhere in the world and,
- The outlook of two politicians reg child marriages--
[ courtesy http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/09/21/clinton_global_initiative_girls_not_brides_campaign_aims_to_end_.html
[ courtesy 
Current Affairs
