Criminalizing forced marriage deters Muslim youth from seeking help

Evidence

Laws underpinned by notions of European cultural superiority and Muslim cultural inferiority may inadvertently have some positive effect, their paternalism and surveillance features notwithstanding. For example, insisting that women have a right to divorce spelled out in the Muslim marriage contract may well strengthen the position of those who argue, from within Muslim communities (as does the group Women Living Under Muslim Laws), that Islam grants the right of divorce. The support requirements in family reunification may also restrict the marrying off of young girls, but it will also stem the flow of many Muslim migrants into Norway altogether. In the end, bearing in mind the enormously productive function of the culturalist narrative, its installation of civilized Europeans who are obliged to instruct and discipline non-European Others, we can best assess the potential of the laws through considering both what they produce and what they foreclose. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 315 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Even stigmatizing anti-forced-marriage laws can yield some internal Muslim gains — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 315; Forced-marriage discourse frames Muslim culture as feudal and unintegrable — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 260; Anti-Muslim texts conflate arranged marriage with forced marriage to indict migrant culture — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 263 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Even stigmatizing anti-forced-marriage laws can yield some internal Muslim gains #complicates (0.78) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 315