In 2012, JAN Trust published, in the House of Lords, its finding in an innovative report titled ‘Internet Extremism: Working towards a Community Solution’, which explored the issue of online radicalisation and discussed UK based case studies.

As a survivor of the 7/7 London bombings, Sajda Mughal OBE, CEO of the JAN Trust has channelled her energies to focus her efforts in preventing and countering extremism and online radicalisation.

This was initiated with the research undertaken from 2009 for this report that included a community consultation with hundreds of Muslim women and mothers, as well as extensive online research and looking in detail at UK based case studies. The findings were incredibly revealing, showing the plethora of extremist material available online.

This report has been influential in shaping policy and played a significant role in a shift of thinking; resulting in online radicalisation being taken seriously and widely discussed in all areas of counter extremism. It has also been pivotal in determining much of the work of JAN Trust today, as the basis for our highly acclaimed Web Guardians™ Programme.

Through our 25 years of experience in supporting victims of forced marriages and working with perpetrators, we at JAN Trust decided to investigate this issue in further detail by conducting a consultation carried out over a 3 year period, along with a forced marriage survey. The results and recommendations form the basis of this report.

This report highlights the key issues and suggests effective prevention of forced marriages. We emphasise why we opposed the criminalisation of forced marriages. We believe that this will push this cultural practice deeper underground and will result in victims being placed under even greater pressure from their family and community to remain silent, as well as at a severe risk of retaliation attacks if they do seek help.

We are strongly calling for a grass-roots led approach to combating forced marriages and we recommend dialogue with the Pakistani community, educating and training relevant service providers and to improve the enforcement of the Forced Marriage Act. We hope that this will encourage service providers and statutory agencies to gain a better understanding of the culture surrounding forced marriages, and to become more empowered to appropriately deal with forced marriage cases.

To request a report, please submit the below request.

Click here to find out more about training we can provide.