Forced Marriage – The Zubin Foundation

The Problem

It was in 2018 that The Zubin Foundation was faced with our first case of forced marriage. The young woman had finished a year in a Hong Kong community college and was volunteering with us. Amari (alias) told The Zubin Foundation that after the summer holidays, she was getting married. She was scared and she had wanted to delay the marriage to her first cousin by a couple of years, but her parents had disagreed. She did not want to marry her cousin in Pakistan but the cost of not doing so was too great for her sisters to bear – her parents threatened to withdraw all of them from school in Hong Kong and send them to Pakistan, if she did not agree to the marriage. She told The Zubin Foundation this practice of forced marriage was common in Hong Kong. Amari is a Hong Kong born young woman, educated in Hong Kong schools and spoke perfect Cantonese. Her case had a profound impact on the work at The Zubin Foundation.

In Hong Kong, we do not have official numbers of forced marriage cases. In 2024, we launched the “Time to UnMute | Understanding Forced Marriage in Hong Kong” report and curated the “Hong Kong Forced Marriage Assistance List for Victims and Their Friends”.

Our Work

Understand The Problem

Forced Marriage Assistance List for Victims