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Doctor Freed After Court Forbids Forced Marriage

by Paul Conneally | December 14, 2008 at 11:14 pm

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In a precedent making case coming out of the UK's new Forced Marriage laws the Bangladeshi courts have have ordered a family to return their daughter's passport to her and allow her to fly back to the UK.

The woman is a 33 year old doctor who was being held captive by her parents who were attempting to force her into a marriage that she did not want.

The UK has now made the attempt to force someone into a marriage a criminal offence and had issued an injunction to attempt to stop the forced marriage going ahead. The injunction was served in Bangladesh where the courts could have ignored it but in a lanmark action decode to uphold it.

This offers hope for the many UK young women who are forced into such marriages every year.

An NHS doctor who was held captive by her parents in Bangladesh in an attempt to force her into marriage to a stranger has been freed and is to return to Britain.

The parents of Dr Humayra Abedin, a 33-year-old trainee GP, were ordered by a judge in Bangladesh to return her passport, driver's licence and credit card after they finally answered a summons to present her to the court.

Her lawyers said the case set a precedent in Bangladesh and it is also one of the first cases where legal action was taken in the UK since the Forced Marriages Act became law last month.

Dr Abedin, who came to Britain six years ago to study for a Masters degree in public health at Leeds University and was due to become a registrar at a GP surgery in east London, travelled to Bangladesh after being told her mother was seriously ill.

A missing NHS doctor freed following claims she was being held captive in Bangladesh by her parents is due to fly into the UK on Monday afternoon.

Lawyers for trainee GP Humayra Abedin, 33, from east London, said her family planned to force her into marriage.

She had travelled to Dhaka in August after hearing her mother was very ill.

London's High Court had ordered her return to the UK under the new Forced Marriage Act and the High Court in Dhaka has now ruled she must be freed.

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Dave Keating

at 00:09 on December 15th, 2008

nice work

Miriam Mannak

at 00:28 on December 15th, 2008

Good for her! And good news forced marriages are to become a crime in the UK!

Paul Conneally

at 00:36 on December 15th, 2008

Thanks Miriam - this woman was old enough to be able to get a message out - many of the women from the UK that are put in this predicament are school girls and it is even harder for them to take action - hopefully the new laws will help.

KaushiK™

at 03:39 on December 15th, 2008

It's a great development indeed. Another woman who was forcefully married from a Bangladeshi family to a non-resident Bangladeshi groom is still in the government home in Australia, waiting for some help from her homeland.

The bloggers are trying hard to put this under media attention so they can forward the issue to the government desks for urgent action.

[attached Dr. Humayra Abedin's photo]