“I bought you. You are my wife”: “Modern Slavery” and Forced Marriage

Abstract

Forced marriage is identified as a serious global challenge, and has recently been linked to modern slavery. In this article we seek to understand how slavery, institutions and practices similar to slavery, and other forms of exploitation are linked to forced marriage. Innovatively, we do this through deductive and linguistic analysis of the world’s largest database of survivor narratives.We found that people who are forced to marry experience a range of forms of exploitation and human rights violations, including institutions and practices similar to slavery and arguably“ slavery itself. This includes forced labor, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, trafficking in persons, and significant restrictions on personal liberty and movement. Sometimes this occurs during their marriage; sometimes it occurs before, leading to a forced marriage; on occasion it happens after, because of womens vulnerability on having exited a forced marriage. Our findings should prompt further research into the links between forced marriage, modern slavery, and trafficking in persons. Absent any further research, they should already help policy-makers and those on the front line to understand the links between these phenomena, and thus aid the achievement of both Sustainable Development Goal 5 (5.3) and 8 (8.7).