BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE SPOONS
During August 2013 a newspaper article headline was ‘Women who fear being forced to marry abroad told to hide spoon in underwear ‘(Guardian).
In July 2015 the charity Karma Nirvana launched their Spoon Lapel Badge initiative to raise awareness of the issues affecting women and girls who are being forced to marry.
Call handlers at Karma Nirvana suggest to girls, as a last resort, to put spoons in knickers, providing an opportunity to be taken aside when the security alarm sounds and spoken to in a private room. This is to avoid them finding themselves in the middle of nowhere abroad being forced into marriage without any sort of help. Also Karma Nirvana is engaged in raising girls’ and boys’ awareness in schools. The latter is an ongoing process.
Karma Nirvana has trained over half of the 43 Police Authorities on the issues of forced marriage. This work is continuing. The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is educating Border Agencies and although it is quite difficult to gain access to privately owned airports Karma Nirvana has trained Social Care teams in six airports in the UK. Raising awareness of the issues of forced marriage is a lengthy process and it is hoped that the idea of spoons will be an excellent tool to further raise awareness amongst the general public worldwide. A great opportunity for advocacy!
http://www.karmanirvana.org.uk -You must watch this YOUTUBE clip!