For many of us, reports on women and girls being threatened with violence and forced to marry seem distant and incomprehensible.

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.

Rather spoke with Miller-Muro about the hidden problem of forced marriage in the U.S.

Event calls attention to incredible courage of Tahirih’s clients and of women and girls around the world facing violence and oppression.

The United States has just begun to take notice of the problem of forced marriage domestically; however, there is very little shared understanding among non-profits and government agencies of the problem’s full dimensions, nor any coordinated effort to envision strategies and solutions.

The court decision reflects a critical course-correction from earlier decisions by both the judge and the nation’s highest immigration court that held asylum claims by women who have suffered FGM to a higher legal standard than claims by other asylum applicants.