Sigh... An all too common scenario in East London, as it's not 'most' marriages, it's the majority of marriages, especially amongst Muslims (though not exclusively), that are arranged... I say that as a member of this particular community and as someone who assumes that she will be getting married this way. And it's a given sadly, that some of these will be forced. Feel I have to highlight this distinction again - one of the comments above has perhaps confused the two with its reference to the Forced Marriages Unit (though admittedly that is easily done)? This sounds like an unhappy arranged marriage, which doesn't require 'legal' intervention, although the girl obviously needs outside support. As to the whys and wherefores voiced above, I couldn't read them and not comment. So here goes... I guess the easiest (and shortest, though I have a feeling the use of that word will be relative!) answer to give is that, to quote Tom above, whilst arranged marriages should not be about power over a woman being given to a man, in patriarchal societies that is exactly what they are about. The daughter represents the father's (and by extension, the family's and the community's) honour (izzat is the Hindi/Urdu/Bengali word for this concept) which is transferred to the husband and his family/community. The act of marriage means that once the girl leaves the familial home she is no longer part of that family but now a member and responsibility of the husband's family. The unspoken rules of behaviour in our society mean that the daughter can never really express unhappiness with her father's decision/choice - she must suffer in silence and bear as best she can under the circumstances - and to admit her unhappiness to her family means that she has failed in playing this all too common role. That part of this sorry affair is purely down to tradition/cultural behaviours and really infuriates me - not least as it's not unrelated to the fact that women of south Asian origin have some of the highest rates of mental illness in the UK. Anyway, that's my interpretation of why the poor girl was so distressed - her family's distress would also have arisen from the fact they felt betrayed by the husband's behaviour - they entrusted him with their honour/daughter (the two really are interchangeable in this society) and he is abusing it through his current behaviour. And, (based on my own parents' experiences), the girl would have been coaxed into marrying someone from abroad with images of the UK as the promised land where she would be treated like royalty. Necessary in a way, since as you can imagine, to go with a complete stranger to live in a foreign land and end up cut off from all kinds of support/support networks is a hell of a step to take, especially when the girl knows that she will be the dependent one in the relationship as a result... So, when she eventually expressed her unhappiness to her parents, she was effectively revealing their complicity in this illusion. That's a really basic explanation of some of the societal/cultural factors at play here and I admit it is subjective because these are the factors I am familiar with as a result of growing up with my cultural heritage (South Asian/Muslim). More than happy to be corrected/challenged/questioned on any of this stuff. "Culture .... a horrid situation, but we look at it from our viewpoint". Hmmm... I'm presuming the mention of culture here refers to the practice of arranged marriages... to actually defend the practice for a moment, all my school friends have had arranged marriages, the majority to partners they had not met beforehand and almost all are (to my knowledge) happy, busy working and raising families. There have been a handful of divorces amongst my peers but I imagine the proportion is still low compared to what it is for the UK population as a whole. And a last point, it's not such an alien concept to western society - this could easily be a scenario from middle or upper-class/aristocratic Europe in not so distant times where a girl would agree to marry an unsuitable but highly eligible partner and then suffer in silence for the sake of maintaining her [surrogate] family's reputation... Diana and Charles keep springing to mind for some reason... Oops I think I have just undermined my own argument there! Apologies for the overly long comment btw - but admittedly the topic is a complex one, one that even a lifetime of familiarity can't simplify...