Calls for more South Yorkshire kids to learn about forced marriage
A BME charity says more schools should be teaching children about forced marriage.
There are calls for more South Yorkshire children to be taught about forced marriage in schools.
Rotherham BME group Apna Haq say it's an issue not enough teenagers know about - which could lead to them being forced into marriages by their parents without realising.
They've been running sessions in one school in the town to raise awareness about it, but say more schools should follow suit.
Zlakha Ahmed's been running the sessions - she told Hallam it's really important children know about it:
"Unless somebody lets you know that what is happening is wrong and that you can do something about it, most children will go along with the abuse. It's very important that we give our children the understanding and knowledge of what a forced marriage is.
"If you do go through a forced marriage, once the marriage is done, in a way the damage has already been done. So ideally if we can educate the children beforehand and get them to seek support if they do feel that's the road their parents might be taking."
Hallam's had exclusive access to one of the lessons - which was centred on teaching children the difference between arranged marriage and forced marriage.
Brinsworth Academy's been playing host to the session for year 10 students.
But Zlakha says many schools she approached about the lessons were reluctant to take part.
She told us there's still a stigma around forced marriage which needs to be reduced:
"If we go back 15 years, forced marriage wasn't recognised as a form of abuse. Parents who carried out forced marriage would say it's part of our culture, it's part of our religion and agencies and professionals would think 'ok that's part of their culture, we're not intervening'. Where in reality, any form of abuse is abuse and it needs to be seen as that.
"We're getting much older girls who've gone to university, but once they've finished their education they don't feel in a position to say no to a marriage they're not really happy with and for us as an organisation that can be quite frustrating."
The Forced Marriage Unit dealt with over 2,000 cases across the UK in 2014.
We spoke with some of the children who were in Zlakaha's session - 15 year-old Rahees Iqbal told us it was really useful:
"It's all about rights - you have the right to do whatever you want. The word pressure comes into it - you don't have to be pressured into stuff you don't want to do. It's all about opinions and choice."
15 year-old Arouje Nawaz is one of the children who took part - she says she had no idea it was such a big problem:
"It doesn't just make the people who've experienced it know what happened, but people who might or might see others experience it. It makes them more aware and catch out the signs so they can help people. It's not something that you come across every day, especially in countries like in England. It was surprising cases happened here in Rotherham too."
Apna Haq are hoping to extend their school sessions across Rotherham - to prevent more teenagers falling victim to a crime which can ruin lives.