We were in the courtroom and I caught my client’s eyes. They filled with tears, and then she looked forward toward the judge and jury. She was a very small Ukrainian woman and very scared.

Forced marriage is an issue that has increasingly come to our attention as Tahirih received calls for help from around the country. There is a regrettable lack of information in the United States about forced marriage, there are no laws designed to protect forced marriage victims, and there is a void in community dialogue and advocacy on the issue.

Forced marriage and honor violence are often viewed in the West as backward customs relegated to impoverished developing nations. But a spate of gruesome honor killings in the U.K., and new research about the prevalence of underage marriage in the U.S., for the first time show that this kind of violence against women is far more widespread.

New office at 1717 St. James Place, Suite 320, will accommodate Tahirih Houston’s growing direct services staff and client roster.

The training series is possible through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Do something! That’s what the courageous women activists and leaders urged at the launch of the Women in the World Foundation in Manhattan on Tuesday.

For women and girls like Tahirih’s clients, it is not enough to have just any attorney. Their unique gender-based violence cases require attorneys who are well-versed in both sensitive cultural issues and the extremely complicated and often unexplored territory of gender-based immigration law.