Knots: A Forced Marriage Story Review
When you think of forced marriages what do you think of? Do you think of a third world country that is clearly not up to our western values and is something that’s quite barbaric? Because I bet you don’t expect forced marriages to be something that’s happening in America every day…
Knots looks at forced marriages in the US where, apart from four states, they do not have a minimum age limit for marriage which is absolutely insane to me. Now I don’t know what the rules are for the UK apart from what I have heard but to think that anyone could marry anyone at any age and in most states seems odd to me.
The documentary follows three different women who have three very special stories about how they ended up in a marriage with a man, whom they did not pick for themselves but had their families pick for them, and how they slowly came to realise that this way of living was not the be all and end all and they could get out and they could get help.
Far too often in these stories you see these women being coerced into this way of living by her family, mainly her father, but obviously her mother can play a big part in this too because she too could’ve been a victim of forced marriage. Most the time it is the father wanting honour for their family and want their daughter to marry someone who they see as an upstanding member of the community, however a lot of these men are often way older than the girls that they are marrying, sometimes double their age.
And the thing with these men, due to this way of living where the patriarchy is so important and you always have to listen to and do what your father says, these men expect these women to be at their beck and call 24/7. If a woman was to step out of line with her husband then he sees no problem in punishing her for that, even if she did nothing wrong.
And women a lot of the times end up financially dependent on their husbands and see it as they have no way of escaping. They don’t realise how indoctrinated they are into this situation and so while they may want to escape or they may be unhappy a lot of them don’t get to escape because they have no money and everyone in the community would blacklist them for it.
This documentary shines such a bright light on this issue being not only a third world phenomena but a first world issue too. In the 21st-century you see all these things about women’s rights and equality but in certain areas there is still this dark underground world of women being treated as secondhand citizens and it has to stop. What is more important to you and your family: your reputation? Or your daughter’s happiness? I find it so sad that these people are so indoctrinated they do not see that their daughter is not happy.
For anyone who may be going through something like this I want to say that there is help out there, there is support, and you can get out of it. You’re not trapped. I went through a very toxic relationship where I felt trapped and thankfully I managed to get out and have been much happier ever since. I am able to stand on my own 2 feet now and I don’t feel like I need to depend on anyone to live my life for me. I want to let you know that, even though I haven’t been through a child marriage, that if you’re in a bad situation with a partner or family or friend you can get out of it and you can get help.
Knots is coming to theatres on May 7th and will be followed by the digital release on June 4th. If you have an interest in documentaries and broadening your understanding of the world that we live in then I highly recommend you watch this. And also if you want to be able to help these women then this documentary is also great at looking at who is doing what to help the people being forced into these marriages and changing the legislation around it. If you want more information then I highly recommend this documentary and of course I always say it’s best to be informed as much as you can.
Please let me know what you think.
Until next time.
Moving Picture Review 