Still: Forced Vows - Eva Strating & Roxanne Herder

In Forced Vows, we are introduced to four Dutch women - Nadia, Deborah, Zainab and Sarah - whose basic human rights are denied them by their own families, whether for cultural or religious purposes, sometimes for significant financial gain, as they are forcibly coerced into arranged marriages.

Such are the sensitivities around each case, and the need to maintain anonymity, all of the women are played by actresses. But their testimonies are genuine, as transcribed from witness interviews. Also prominent in the film is Shirin Musa, the human rights activist who works tirelessly to protect the interests of the four women.

The common denominator among three of the four cases is the women’s inability to combat the ultra-conservative and religious, often patriarchal, practices which underpin these marital contracts. 

Sarah was born and raised a Dutch girl but was shipped to Somalia for because her mother thought she ‘misbehaved’ back in the Netherlands. Overtime, the idea of an arranged marriage arose. When it arrived, she hid in a broom cupboard for three days to escape her new husband, post-wedding, but he eventually extricated her, and subsequently raped and beat her.

Nadia, of Afghani heritage, came to the Netherlands when she was eight, but was later sold for marriage at the age of 14 for $10,000, and was returned to Afghanistan. Her wedding day was the worst day of her life, she says, and she was beaten and treated as a house slave by her mother-in law.

In both cases, the women escaped to the Netherlands embassy, but their passports had been stolen by their families and therefore they received next to no help as there was no longer proof of their (now expired) Dutch citizenship, despite their speaking Dutch with clear Dutch accents.

Zainab had a lucky escape. Told that she was going on a family holiday to Turkey, she found out that the purpose of the trip was to marry her off in Iran. While travelling through Bulgaria, she managed to escape to the airport with her passport, where she called her boyfriend back in The Netherlands to arrange a flight so she could return. A stand-off ensued between her and her family at the airport, but in such a public setting Zainab prevailed and managed to leave.

The case of Deborah is different in that she is a woman of very Dutch heritage, but trapped within a sexually violent marriage that was supported and condoned by her Reformed-style church. She was raped continuously by her husband, but eventually forced a separation with him after conducting an affair. He agreed to their divorce but the Church didn't, and she subsequently lost all friends and status. She describes her case as “an honour killing, Reformed-style.”

In the film, we are also introduced to Dutch-based activist Shirin Musa, director of Femmes for Freedom, who fights for better legislation and who supports women who are trapped in forced marriages abroad.

Directors Eva Strating and Roxanne Herder, who had previously made a film about femicide in The Netherlands in 2022, heard about a regular “progressive” Dutch girl, one who came from a very conservative family, but who had been sold to a family relative. The plan was that she would be married off immediately after finishing school. 

The directors’ interest was immediately piqued. They had, of course, heard about arranged marriages, “but we never knew that it's still actually something that takes place here, among girls born and raised in The Netherlands,” says co-director Strating.

They pitched the idea of a film to commissioning editors at NPO Docs, but they were told they needed to find an additional element to bind what would effectively be a series of anonymously told stories. 

When they heard about activist Shirin, they knew they had found the perfect hook, but Shirin was reluctant to be part of the project. “She didn't have the best experiences with journalists before, and with media. But we just we kept calling her, sending her emails and be like, ‘can you please look at the film plan? This is what we previously made and this is what we want to do.’ So, somehow we managed to gain her trust,” says Strating. 

In the film, Shirin is seen continuously pitching and promoting her Daughters Arrangement initiative which seeks to arrange for temporary citizenship to enable Dutch women to get back home after their citizenship has expired. This was the case in the film with both Sarah and Nadia, and Shirin was able to arrange their safe passage home, where she still maintains close links with the women.

Forced Vows is a film ripe with Impact potential, and the directors have created a 25-minute version that is perfect for showing in schools. They are currently hatching plans to develop a campaign after Movies That Matter, where their essential film receives its world premiere.

Strating further highlights the case of Deborah, whose heritage was very Dutch and very Caucasian. “People like to say, ‘that’s not our problem. It’s something you see among people in Muslim countries.’ But it is our problem, since all of these women are Dutch. That’s why we also added the story of Deborah, to really show that it happens across all the layers of society.”

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Forced Vows is produced by De Haaien.

Find out more about Movies that Matter here.