Close
MyNorthwest
News
Opinion
Sports
Tools
Connect

‘Love doesn’t exist’: Immigrants defy forced marriage abroad

A woman walks along a wall near a mosque in Reggio Emilia, northern Italy, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) A man walks by a mural in the Fiumicello district, where many migrants live, in Brescia, northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Pakistani women relax on a bench of a public park as their kids play outside a school at the Fiumicello district, populated heavily by migrants from India and Pakistan, in Brescia, northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) A Punjabi food store is open in the Fiumicello district of Brescia, northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Swaranjit Singh Ghotra, photographer and wedding planner for Indian and Pakistani couples shows pictures of married couples from his Instagram account, in Brescia, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. He said he receives many requests for arranged marriages that both spouses want. But courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Activists of the 'Trama di Terre' (Weaving of Native Lands) and other women's advocacy groups display a banner in Italian reading 'Freedom for all women, forever free', outside the Reggio Emilia courthouse in northern Italy, during the opening session of trial for the alleged murder of Pakistani-born Saman Abbas Friday, Feb.10, 2023. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Nomanoulaq Nomanoulaq arrives at a hearing of the trial for the alleged murder of his cousin, Pakistani-born Saman Abbas at Reggio Emilia's courthouse in northern Italy, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. The trial is one of two currently in Italy to seek justice for Pakistani-origin women who were allegedly strangled by relatives angered by their defiance of forced marriage. A lawyer for the relatives charged in the case has denied wrongdoing by clients. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Danish Hasnain, right, is brought back to jail at the end of a hearing of the trial for the alleged murder of his niece, Pakistani-born Saman Abbas at Reggio Emilia's Law court, northern Italy, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. The case is one of two trials currently in Italy in which relatives are charged with allegedly killing a young woman who refused family demands for an arranged marriage. A lawyer for Hasnain and four others contend the woman's relatives are innocent. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Verkalets Olha from Ukraine, shows her smartphone with pictures of her Pakistani-born friend Sana Cheema outside the Law court in Brescia, northern Italy, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, after testifying in a hearing of the trial for her murder. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In separate murder trials, Italy is seeking justice for Pakistani-origin women who were allegedly strangled by relatives angered by their defiance of forced marriage. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Verkalets Olha from Ukraine, right, and Veronica Catana of Moldova, show their smartphones with pictures of their Pakistani-born friend Sana Cheema before testifying in a trial about her alleged murder outside the courthouse in Brescia, northern Italy, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. The two women told the court how Cheema loved her Western lifestyle in Brescia and didn't want to go back to Pakistan, where her family wanted her to wed in an arranged marriage. An autopsy in Pakistan indicated Cheema was allegedly strangled. Brescia prosecutors alleged that Cheema's "political right" to marry whom she wanted was violated. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Verkalets Olha from Ukraine, left, a friend of Pakistani-born Sana Cheema, testifies during an hearing of the trial for Cheema's murder at the Brescia Law court, northern Italy, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) An Italian Carabinieri policeman patrols near the crumbling farmhouse in Novellara, northern Italy, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, where the body of Pakistani Saman Abbas was dug up in November 2022, nineteen months after she had disappeared. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) A stuffed toy squirrel and by now long dried flowers are left in tribute near the ruins of a farmhouse in Novellara, northern Italy, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, where the body of Pakistani Saman Abbas was found in November 2021, nineteen months after she had disappeared. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Pakistani-born, Iram Aslam, 29, talks during an interview with The Associated Press in a social activities center in Guastalla, northern Italy, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. Aslam defied relatives' insistence that she marry a cousin in Pakistan, and by her count, rebuffed some 30 other men they tried to get her to marry. She asked to be photographed without showing her face because of hostility in the local immigrant community over her refusal to submit to arranged marriages. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Pakistani-born Iram Aslam, 29, peeks through the window of a local social activities center in Guastalla, northern Italy, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, during an interview with The Associated Press. She recounted how she angered her family by refusing a marriage, decided at her birth, to a cousin in Pakistan. Courageous refusal by young immigrant women in Italy to submit to forced marriages sometimes carries a deadly price. In two murder trials this month, Italian prosecutors are seeking justice for Pakistani immigrant women allegedly killed because they refused marriages imposed by their parents. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
‘Love doesn’t exist’: Immigrants defy forced marriage abroad