Call to action

Let’s unite and fight for justice and gender equality in all spheres of family law. It is time to end the injustice and violence of marital captivity. This is what you can do to join Femmes for Freedom in our fight against marital captivity:

• Do research. Start painting the situation in your country. Is forced marriage illegal in your country? Then you can fight for the broadening of the definition of forced marriage to include marital captivity. 

• Raise awareness. Raise awareness through storytelling, writing opinion pieces, approaching media and building coalitions. Also, use social media such as Twitter, Instagram, facebook, Linkedin and your website to draw (inter)national attention to the issue. Use the hashtag: #StopMaritalCaptivity

• Network and lobby. Build or use your network of politicians to place the issue of marital captivity on the political agenda. Address the situation at the CEDAW Comittee by speaking on how your country does not take measures to combat marital captivity and is therefore in violation of article 16. 

• How can we help each other? Let's share each other's messages, information and stories. Let's share our networks and connect: we need a strong base of support to achieve this change. Let's get in touch!

Femmes for Freedom has created a toolkit to help inform yourself or others by raising awareness for marital captivity. You can access these resources on the right. All documents are open-sourced and may be used freely. You can find more information in our marital captivity information centre.