A.S.’s husband was mysteriously killed during training with the Iranian Air Force, and the Iranian government subsequently declared him to be a martyr. As the widow of a martyr, A.S. was required to submit to the rigid rules of the Bonyad-e Shahid Islamic society, a foundation which supported and supervised the families of martyrs. In accordance with the aims of Bonyad-e Shahid, a high-ranking leader forced A.S.
A father alleged that his son-in-law had kidnapped his daughter. The daughter showed that she was of age and had married of her own free will. The court held that a family can have no control over who an adult chooses to marry.
In the case Association for Social Justice Research v. Union of India, a public interest petition was filed after an 11–12-year-old girl was allegedly married off by her father to a much older man. When the girl was found and medically examined, her age was assessed to be between 16 and 18. She told the Court she had married voluntarily and denied any money was exchanged.
The Göta Court of Appeal case, B 302-22, concerned whether M.A. and R.B. had committed conspiracy to forced marriage by planning to compel their daughter, H.M., to travel to Pakistan to marry against her will. The Göta Court of Appeal found M.A. guilty, holding that he intended to exploit his daughter’s vulnerable situation to force her into a marriage or marriage-like union. His actions, including restricting her contact with the outside world, clearly demonstrated an attempt to control her life choices.
Part 8 of the Crimes Act (the “CA”) of New Zealand covers crimes against a person including homicide, infanticide, assault on a child, assault on persons in a family relationship, acid throwing, female genital mutilation, coerced marriage and abduction. Section 194 provides a maximum sentence of 2 years for an assault by a male against any female or for an assault against any child under the age of 14.
The applicant, who was born to a mother in slavery, was sold to a local chief at age 12. For the next nine years she was subjected to rape, violence, and forced labor without remuneration. When Niger’s Supreme Court failed to convict her "owner" under Article 270.1-5 of the Nigerien Criminal Code, which made slavery illegal in 2003, the applicant brought her case before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice under Article 9(4) of the Supplementary Protocol A/SP.1/01/05.
S was convicted for repeated violent rape within an arranged marriage over the course of 13 months. The court imposed a sentence of 13 years, six months imprisonment for the rape, with concurrent sentences for the lesser offenses, calculated as a 15 year base due to the violent nature of the acts and the vulnerability of the victim, with a downward adjustment for the respondent’s lack of prior convictions.
In the case Smt. Seema v. Ashwani Kumar, the Supreme Court considered the need for uniform marriage registrations across India. The Court observed that non-registration created legal uncertainties, particularly affecting the status of women and children, and facilitated practices such as child marriage and bigamy. The Court held that compulsory registration of all marriages, regardless of the religion of the parties, was necessary in the public interest.
The defendants Yang and Li trafficked 17 Vietnamese women who were prostitutes in Vietnam to Yunnan Province, China. Yang and Li pretended to be clients and brought the women to hotels and restaurants where they kidnapped the women and transported them to China. The defendants offered the women to villagers in remote rural area of Yunnan Province, China and forced the women to marry buyers by force or threats.
