Irish woman’s dramatic rescue from forced marriage horror

Survivor: Amala, a woman who was forced into a marriage she did not want. Photo: Mark Condren

Ellen Coyne

July 18 2020 02:30 AM

AN IRISH citizen was dramatically rescued from a forced marriage after being taken from Ireland to Bangladesh in the first known case of its kind in the State.

The 21-year-old woman endured emotional abuse and sexual violence at the hands of her "husband" during the two-month ordeal.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Independent, Amala - not her real name - has detailed how she managed to make her way back to Ireland through an international rescue mission involving the Irish and British governments. The high-risk escape involved an elaborate ruse, a bullet-proof car, background work at two different embassies and online detective work by Amala's Irish boyfriend.

Amala is now calling on the State to offer better support for other women who may be in similar situations. The young woman believes that there are other unknown cases of forced marriage happening in Ireland today. She wants better awareness of the culture and tradition surrounding women in South Asian families.

When Amala was 20, she was taken to Bangladesh by her family who claimed they were visiting Amala's sick grandmother.

When she arrived, her passport and phone were taken off her and she was pressured into a marriage by her family.

She did not speak the same language as her ‘husband’and was pressured into sex by both the man and her own family.

“I didn’t let him rape me for as long as I could,” Amala said.

“It was horrifying. I remember having almost an out-of-body experience. I wasn’t even sobbing or anything, there were just tears as I lay there. This happened a lot, very frequently. Every day.”

Shortly afterwards, her parents went back to Ireland and left her alone in Bangladesh with no passport.

Amala said she started screaming when she realised what had happened.

“I thought: ‘This is it. I’m going to be here forever,with this guy who is abusing me every single day’,” she said.

Amala’s internet access was restricted but she found ways to contact her boyfriend back in Ireland when possible.

Her boyfriend started to do research on forced marriages, and discovered the UK government’s Forced Marriage Unit. Ireland does not have its own Forced Marriage Unit.

After contacting the UK Home Office on Amala’s behalf, the British government contacted the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and alerted them to Amala’s case.

The Irish Independent has seen documents from the UK Home Office and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs which show both governments working together to bring Amala home.

British officials came up with a ruse to get Amala safely on her own in Bangladesh, before she was taken into a secure building.

She was covered and escorted out of the back of the building before being put in a bulletproof car to take her to the airport.

The flight home to Dublin was the first time Amala had been on a plane by herself.

When she landed, she was met by a garda and taken to a women’s refuge. She was forced to start her life from scratch.

One year later,she is still working on her relationship with her parents.

“I didn’t talk to them for a very, very long time. Months. Eventually, when I did, they were hard work at first. I really did have to educate them and make them see what they were doing, which took a lot of time. And it’s sad that such a major event had to happen for them to realise how wrong they were,” she said.

Amala said that young women in South Asian families hold all of the honour, and there needs to be better understanding of and State support for forced marriage survivors in Ireland.

“These things happen a lot more because of tradition and culture, rather than religion. Religion does play a role, but a big part of this is just tradition,” she said.