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Shirin Musa is the founder, director and promoter of the Dutch women’s rights foundation Femmes for Freedom, which has accomplished the fundamental right to divorce for Dutch women in an Islamic marriage. The Dutch Parliament has expanded the definition of forced marriage by not only focusing on forcing women to get married, but also on forcing them to stay married, neglecting their right to a religious divorce, a question included in the Dutch penal code. This way, the Netherlands has become the first country in the world to include marital captivity on its forced marriage bill.

Shirin Musa’s personal experience 

Sshe is the first woman from a Muslim community to free herself from an Islamic marriage through a religious divorce under the Dutch law, and the experiences of women that go to her while being in heartbreaking marital captivities led her to found Femmes for Freedom in 2011. Musa was born in the capital of Balochistan, Pakistan and arrived to the Netherlands when she was a baby alongside her family, escaping from the Islamic extremism. She studied Law in Rotterdam and got married in 2002 first by the Dutch law and then in a Muslim wedding.

Less than a year after the creation of Femmes for Freedom, Shirin Musa introduced the concept of marital captivity to the Dutch society and the political agenda of various forums and international organizations. She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in the Netherlands and has been nominated to the International Women of Courage Award by the United States Embassy in the Netherlands and to the Nelson Award by the Rotterdam Police Department, among many others.

Marital captivity is the forced extension of marriage when a woman wants to dissolve a religiously celebrated Islamic marriage but a man does not. An Islamic divorce requested by a woman is only possible with the man’s cooperation, but a man can always divorce a woman if he wishes so, even without the woman’s consent. This situation happens in every Muslim country but Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

A woman suffering marital captivity can become a victim of honour violence and can be prosecuted for adultery or bigamy in Islamic countries if she is visiting her family and someone reports her. In some countries, she can even be sentenced to death penalty.

For the Femmes for Freedom foundation, marital captivity does not only affect the Netherlands, but all Europe. In that sense, they have started a widely supported international movement where various organisations work together to influence laws and regulations relating to marital captivity on a European level. According to Shirin Musa, women from Jewish, Catholic, Islamic and Hindu traditions must fight for their rights in their own communities and countries’ courts. The Femmes for Freedom foundation pursues the compliance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and, in particular, article 16, which outlines women's right to equality before, during and after marriage.

Marital captivity is a multidimensional phenomenon that goes along many other acts of violence, like domestic violence, exploitation, financial extortion, honour violence, polygamy, forced isolation and forced abandonment. It can also be a consequence of forced marriage, although it can also occur in marriages where both parts got married voluntarily.

Femmes for Freedom helps immigrant women and girls in the Netherlands that suffer marital captivity, are in a forced marriage, are at risk of female genital mutilation or are abandoned in their countries. This foundation is committed to equal marriage between men and women by providing legal and financial support to women who suffer marital captivity, as well as women who are dealing with honour killings or sexual violence, to help them change their situation.