My family is planning a forced marriage for me: what can I do?

Your parents have picked someone for you, set a date, or planned a trip you fear you will not come back from. You do not have to accept. In France, a forced marriage is unlawful, and the law provides fast measures to protect you. A lawyer reviews your situation with you in 20 minutes on Avocat20min.fr.

This article starts with the first steps, then explains your rights before, during and after the wedding.

Forced marriage: the first steps

Your safety comes before anything else. Here is what you can do today:

• Immediate danger: call 17 (police or gendarmerie) or 112. If you cannot speak, send a text message to 114.
• You need to talk: 3919 (Violences Femmes Info) listens and refers you, free of charge and without asking your name, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• You are under 18: 119 (Allô enfance en danger) answers day and night, free of charge.
• Reporting in writing: the national platform for reporting sexist and sexual violence lets you chat with a trained police officer or gendarme at any time.
• Protect your documents: photograph your passport, identity card and residence permit. Send the copies to someone you trust.
• Keep a record: save messages and threats, and note the names of the people putting pressure on you.

You can also confide in a doctor or nurse, a social worker, a teacher or a specialist association such as Fédération GAMS.

What French law says about forced marriage

A forced marriage is any union, civil, religious or customary, imposed through threats, pressure or violence. French law sets clear rules:

• No marriage without consent. Article 146 of the Civil Code says it in one sentence: there is no marriage without consent.
• Family pressure counts. Article 180 covers any constraint, including "reverential fear" of a parent or grandparent. You do not need to have been hit.
• Eighteen at the earliest. Article 144 bans marriage before 18. Only the public prosecutor (procureur de la République) can grant an exemption, for serious reasons.
• Even abroad. Under article 202-1, both spouses must consent whatever the law of the country of origin says.

A religious or customary wedding without a civil marriage has no legal value in France. A minister of religion who habitually performs such ceremonies without a prior marriage certificate faces one year in prison and a €7,500 fine (article 433-21 of the Criminal Code).

Before the wedding: the town hall and the prosecutor

If the wedding is due to take place at the town hall, the law gives you a first line of defence. The registrar first hears the future spouses together. When there is reason to fear a forced marriage, the registrar must speak with each of them alone (article 63 of the Civil Code).

You can ask for this private interview and tell the truth. The file then goes to the public prosecutor (article 175-2). The prosecutor has fifteen days to let the marriage go ahead, oppose it, or suspend it while an inquiry takes place. The suspension lasts one month and can be renewed once.

You can also write directly to the public prosecutor at the judicial court where you live.

A protection order against a forced marriage

This is the most useful measure if you are an adult under threat. Article 515-13 of the Civil Code allows the family judge (juge aux affaires familiales) to issue one urgently to a person threatened with forced marriage. You do not need to have filed a criminal complaint first.

Measure	What it does	Article
No-contact order	Named people may not approach or contact you	Art. 515-11, 1°
Weapons	Ban on holding weapons, which are handed to the police	Art. 515-11, 2° and 2° bis
Hidden address	Your address for court purposes is your lawyer's office or the prosecutor's	Art. 515-11, 6°
Legal aid	Provisional legal aid without waiting for the full application	Art. 515-11, 7°
Travel ban	Temporary ban on leaving France, at your request, entered in the wanted persons file	Art. 515-13
Decision time	Six days at most after the hearing date is set	Art. 515-11
Duration	Twelve months at most	Art. 515-12

The travel ban protects you from being taken out of the country: border checks flag it before you can board. It applies only to you, and only you can ask for it.

When the danger is serious and immediate, the public prosecutor can also request an immediate provisional protection order. The judge then rules within twenty-four hours (article 515-13-1).

The application is filed at the judicial court. You can do it alone, with an association or with a lawyer. The judge can hear you separately from the people you fear.

If you are under 18

If you are under 18, call 119 or talk to the school nurse, the social worker or a senior staff member at your school. They can alert the public prosecutor.

In an emergency, the prosecutor can ban you from leaving France for up to two months (article 375-5 of the Civil Code). The children's judge can then extend the ban for up to two years and, if needed, place you somewhere safe (article 375-7).

A trip to the country of origin worries you

Many forced marriages are arranged during "family holidays". Before leaving, give someone you trust a copy of your documents, your itinerary and the address of the French consulate there.

The law punishes tricking someone into going abroad in order to force them into marriage: three years in prison and a €45,000 fine (article 222-14-4 of the Criminal Code).

If you are already abroad, contact the French embassy or consulate yourself or through a relative. The consulate helps you find a safe place and organise your return. It can issue a travel document if your papers were taken. Its room for action may be narrower if you also hold the nationality of the country you are in.

Filing a complaint: what the perpetrators face

A forced marriage often comes with threats, beatings or confinement. The law increases penalties when violence aims to force someone into marriage, or punishes them for refusing it.

Offence	Maximum penalty	Article
Tricking the victim into going abroad to marry	3 years and €45,000	Art. 222-14-4
Violence causing up to eight days of incapacity	3 years and €45,000	Art. 222-13, 6° bis
Violence causing more than eight days of incapacity	5 years and €75,000	Art. 222-12, 6° bis
Torture or acts of barbarity	20 years of criminal imprisonment	Art. 222-3, 6° bis
Murder linked to refusing the marriage	Life imprisonment	Art. 221-4, 10°

These offences can be prosecuted in France even when committed abroad, if you usually live in France (articles 221-5-4, 222-6-3 and 222-16-3).

You file the complaint at a police station, a gendarmerie or in writing to the public prosecutor. Sex imposed within such a marriage is still rape, even between spouses: our guide on marital rape explains your options.

The wedding already took place: annulment

You are not trapped in this marriage. Article 180 of the Civil Code lets you ask for it to be annulled when your consent was not free. Only the spouses or the public prosecutor can bring the claim.

The claim must be made within five years of the wedding (article 181). You must prove the constraint: witness statements, messages, medical certificates, a complaint. If there was no consent at all, the claim stays open for thirty years (article 184).

Divorce remains possible if annulment looks hard to prove. Your lawyer compares both routes with you.

If you are not a French national

A threat of forced marriage must not cost you your right to stay. If you obtain a protection order on this ground, the prefecture issues a one-year "private and family life" residence card (article L. 425-7 of the immigration code, CESEDA). If the perpetrator is finally convicted after your complaint, you receive a ten-year resident card (article L. 425-8).

Our guide on the residence permit for victims of domestic violence explains these steps.

How a lawyer helps

You can act alone, but a lawyer secures each step. They draft the protection order application, gather evidence and assist you at the hearing. They can also file a complaint with you, join the criminal case as a civil party (partie civile) and ask for the marriage to be annulled.

Legal aid (aide juridictionnelle) can cover the fees. The judge can even grant it provisionally with the protection order. No lawyer can promise the outcome of a case, but you will not face your family alone. A family lawyer answers you in 20 minutes.

The official forced marriage page of Arrêtons les violences also lists helplines and associations.

Other family situations

Forced marriage is only one of the conflicts that arise within a family. Our other guides:

• My parents kicked me out although I am an adult
• My brother occupies our late parents' house
• My in-laws claim the surviving spouse's inheritance

To end a marriage without a dispute over the reasons, see also divorce by mutual consent.