Mick Hartley

Germany has now followed Britain's lead and made forced marriage illegal. Deutsche Welle looks at the problem through one particular case (via):

The German government on Thursday decided to make forcing children to marry against their will a crime punishable by five years in prison, but even this decision is unlikely to help an 18-year-old girl, who asked Deutsche Welle to identify her only as "Sibel."

Sibel is on the run from her family, living in constant fear for her life. She has been forced to sever all ties with her former life, and she knows that her parents are searching for her.

"I have left my home, and in our culture this means I have lost my honor," Sibel told Deutsche Welle, after she'd arranged a meeting on neutral ground for fear of betraying her address. "I could be killed. The people who helped me are also at risk. That's just the way it is in our world: a family can restore its honor by killing the runaway daughter."

Sibel was just 13 years old when her parents introduced her to the first young man they wanted her to marry. Unlike many young people in this situation she repeatedly refused.

At the age of 17 her father believed she was almost too old to find a husband. He made it abundantly clear that he expected her to wed a cousin from Turkey, someone she had never met.

"He beat me up, in front of everybody. It was to show that he was in charge of my life," Sibel said. "Then, he took me to another room and continued beating me. That was the first time I ran away."

Despite her black eye and broken arm, Sibel went neither to a doctor, nor to the police. In fact, she eventually returned home, hoping that the situation would improve.

It didn't. Sibel's father secretly traveled to Turkey, where he started planning her wedding. When Sibel found out, she left home again, and has not returned since. Still unwilling to go to the police, she asked for help from the German government's office for youth welfare.

Despite the assistance she has received, Sibel says her family is seeking her relentlessly, which means she's had to sacrifice contact not only her with family, but with her friends as well.

"[My family] are hunting my friends, they're almost tormenting them. But they have no idea where I am either."

Sibel's parents want her to come home, but she says that's now out of the question. Even under existing law, her father can still be sentenced to prison on charges of coercion.

She fears this course of action would be liable to do more harm than good.

"I could imagine my father taking a gun, holding it to my head and pulling the trigger. Or maybe he'd get someone else to do it. I have elder brothers, and they'd do it if my father asked them to."

At least this girl's made the break from her family. So often in stories of honour killings you hear how the daughter was persuaded by her family that she'd be fine and they'd forgive her if only she'd come home. Next thing, she's dead.

As a young woman, Sibel's decision to say "no" has cost her everything – her family, her friends, her job, life as she knew it. The new life that she is trying to build from scratch is not just lonely and challenging, but pervaded by constant fear and a very real danger.

Having spoken with us, Sibel walked tentatively off into the street, looking all around her in case someone was watching.