All victims of forced marriages deserve protection regardless of their sex and the criminal law must be designed to do just that

All victims of forced marriages deserve protection, regardless of their sex, and the criminal law must be designed to do just that.Commander Andy Baker, head of homicide at the Metropolitan Police, who led this week’s conference, said the introduction of a specific criminal offence of forced marriage could help police to tackle the problem by making it easier to investigate. And while a network of agencies offering help to women in forced marriages exists, the plight of unwilling bridegrooms has largely been ignored. In Britain, many young people choose this method because they want a partner who shares the same cultural and religious values as themselves – values which are often in conflict with those espoused by liberal Western society.Acts of aggression against women that are related to marriage or other kinds of intimate relationships are by no means exclusively an Asian or immigrant phenomenon – almost half the women killed in Britain are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. Arranged marriages are an integral part of Asian culture and are practised not just in Asia but throughout the world. Leigh died suddenly of a heart attack, and the accidental partnership this created between Porter and MacLaurin proved a triumphant one, with the affable Porter acting as front man and, in MacLaurin’s words, “taking the flak” from press and City alike.Porter’s qualities were soon tested by their first major gamble. In 1977, they abandoned the Green Shield Stamps which had previously made Tesco’s fame and fortune. In “Operation Checkout”, they replaced the stamps with a policy of deep and continuing price cuts designed to counter the growing success of discount retailers and reduce Britain’s then rampant inflation.

The step was met by universal disapproval among city commentators, for Tesco had to increase its market share substantially to compensate for the loss of profits involved. It did, with sales increasing by nearly two-fifths, far more than even the optimists had believed possible.The very success of “Checkout” involved two major transformations. The first was to rationalise the sprawling range of merchandise Tesco had been offering, a decision that led to the decision, accepted by Porter, to shut the Home’n'Wear departments which had been the reason for his joining Tesco in the first place. MacLaurin recognised that Porter was “quick to accept the rationale of my team as he was to support us in our efforts to reposition the company”.But the most costly step was to abandon the founder’s policy of concentrating on small stores, their location determined by the cheapness of the premises, for Porter inherited a policy of short-termism.

As he put it, “If you look at some of the precincts where our shops were, you will see that, because the property side was so frightened of the Old Man saying ‘How can you pay that sort of rent?’, ours were not in the best position.”Porter and MacLaurin promptly went in for a policy of opening much larger stores in better positions. During the 10 years that Porter and MacLaurin were in charge, Tesco’s share of the food market had climbed to within a mere 0.3 per cent of that enjoyed by Sainsbury’s, then far and away the market leader. Furthermore, forced marriage is not sanctioned by any religion. In particular, it is a practice that is expressly forbidden in Islam, which states clearly that women and men must have freedom of choice when selecting a life-partner, as long as the person to be considered is a believer. The truth is that honour crimes have no cultural basis, and the most rudimentary research, had anyone bothered to carry it out, would have revealed this to be the case.Only a small section of the immigrant society, made up largely of members who are poorly educated and hail from traditional, often rural, backgrounds, entertain the idea of forced marriages. The vast majority of Asians in Britain – my own family included – are horrified by the mere thought of such acts. For far too long, the shameful aberration that is honour-linked violence has been allowed to go unchallenged, with the plight of victims being dismissed by mainstream society as a domestic matter tied to alien cultural and religious practices.Proponents of multiculturalism and political correctness have skirted the issue for years, fearing that any action taken against the perpetrators of such crimes may be deemed disrespectful, insensitive and racist.

Similarly, to dismiss forced marriages and honour killings as a sad consequence of a culture clash is to wash our hands of all responsibility for the welfare of some of the most vulnerable members of our society.While advocates of political correctness have been busy walking on egg-shells, they have forgotten to question whether there is any actual foundation to the notion that forced marriages, and by extension honour crimes, are endorsed by certain cultures. This complacency has resulted in atrocities being repeatedly carried out on women who remain ignored and unprotected.If multiculturalism is to be interpreted as turning a blind eye on the unacceptable, then something has gone seriously wrong. For surely there can be no justification for aggression or murder, regardless of the diktats of any tradition? Anti-hunt groups claim the fact that fox hunting is steeped in history and tradition does not detract from the reality of its barbarism. Though the proposal has been a long time coming, it must be welcomed. It says forced marriages are one of the major causes of so-called “honour” crimes, in which victims are falsely imprisoned, assaulted or murdered – often by their closest relatives – because they are deemed to have shamed their family by refusing to marry a partner chosen for them.Now the Met is calling for forced marriage to be made a specific criminal offence so that prosecutions can be made easier.