The decision of a Judge in Navarre to dismiss case concerning the alleged sale of a 14-year-old girl The case of a girl being forced to marry a 21-year-old man from Mollerussa has shocked child protection organizations. They warn that child marriage is more common than it might seem at first glance, but that it often remains behind closed doors, leaving the child completely unprotected. Victims are often faced with the dilemma of reporting their parents and taking matters into their own hands, or accepting the arrangement to avoid further problems.

Five people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the forced marriage of a 14-year-old girl, whom her parents sold for €5,000 and five bottles of whiskey. Those arrested are her parents and the buyers: the 20-year-old man she married and her parents, all three residents of Mollerussa (Pla d'Urgell). The girl disappeared in January in the town of Corella, Navarre, and after the forced marriage, she was forced to beg to provide money for the family who bought her. The Civil Guard began investigating the case following a report to Navarrese social services alerting them that the parents of a Romanian family might have sold their teenage daughter into marriage. The Civil Guard's Women and Minors Unit identified the girl's parents, a 35-year-old man and woman. The Civil Guard also located the minor in Catalonia and began coordinating with the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), the Civil Guard explained in a statement this Saturday. On Friday, October 3, the Mossos d'Esquadra received a report that a girl was begging outside a supermarket in Les Borges Blanques (Les Garrigues). Initially, the Mossos took the minor to the police station to identify her, as she was not carrying any documents, and they also confirmed that she was not enrolled in school. Sources within the force explained to ARA that the officers investigated whether the girl was begging on someone's orders. When they asked if there was an adult who could take responsibility for her, a couple arrived at the police station who introduced themselves as her aunt and uncle. However, they turned out to be her in-laws, aged 40 and 42, who had paid for her to marry their 20-year-old son.

The murder of sisters Arooj and Anisa Abbas – aged just 24 and 21 – in Pakistan has brought to the centre of Catalan public debate a reality that, here, often goes unnoticed: forced marriages and so-called honour crimes against women who dare to rebel. All this gender violence of the worst kind is too often hidden behind communication barriers and ignorance of the reality of migration. In the last thirteen years the Mossos d'Esquadra have detected 198 victims of forced marriages in Catalonia, most of whom were only between 13 and 23. Eighty-one percent of cases reached the police before the marriage went ahead, so they were able to act to prevent the wedding. But it is possible that this is just the tip of the iceberg of a problem that we have ignored for too long, since most of the victims are girls who were born in Catalonia or who have been schooled here and have lived here for a long time.

A week ago, the day after Arooj and Anisa Abbas arrived in Pakistan, they were murdered. The two sisters from Terrassa were killed in a family home in Gujrat, Punjab, where their mother was also staying. When the double murder was committed, the woman was able to escape but fled without her 9-year-old son, who was also in the house. Pakistani police tracked down the mother, who the family also wanted to murder, Pakistani consul in Barcelona Mirza Salman Baig has informed ARA.

"I have received many threats, but I am not afraid of anything." Says Huma Jamshed Bashir, founder and president of the Pakistani Women's Cultural, Educational and Social Association (Acesop), shortly after organising a rally in Barcelona against the murder of two Pakistani sisters who wanted to leave their forced marriages. The protest brought together a dozen Pakistani women and this small turnout, for Jamshed, is a revelation in itself: "There are few because they are banned".

Sisters Arooj and Anisa Abbas (aged 24 and 21) from Terrassa, killed in Pakistan because they wanted a divorce, were forced into their marriages. They are not alone: Catalan police have detected 198 victims of forced marriage in the last 13 years. They are all women, mostly between 13 and 23, who were forced to marry a man against their will. Sometimes marriages can even be carried out online or by phone, as pointed out to ARA on Tuesday the Pakistani consul in Barcelona, Mirza Salman Baig. Social worker Ruth Rosique, from the technical team of Valentes i Acompanyades –a charity campaigning against forced marriages– explains that some victims have distance weddings, which are then confirmed when they visit their country of origin or their husband comes to Catalonia.