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Politicians on federal and on state level have taken stronger measures to combat forced marriages: accordingly, the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), and the Integration Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet (CDU), contribute funds to projects for the online counselling of girls and boys who are threatened by forced marriages. Moreover, Laschet wants to employ a 10-points-action plan to improve the information at schools by addressing the topic of forced marriages within the Islamic instruction classes, for instance. The aim would be to inform the girls as soon as possible, said Laschet. Besides, the predominately female victims would be supported through initiatives supported by the federal state such as women"s refuges, emergency call numbers and counselling centres. The opposition party of the Greens in the state parliament, however, considers the measure to be half-hearted, and added that instead of offering threatened persons protection, the state government would have cut funds to finance the last remaining women"s refuge, the girls" refuge in the city of Bielefeld. The new spokesman of the Muslim Coordination Council (KRM), Bekir Alboga, also expressed himself against forced marriages and so-called honour murders considering them as acts which would erroneously be justified by Islamic principles. In the course of time, the divine principle of not using force in exercising a religion would have been distorted, neglected and misused, which, however, would not change anything of the principle"s universal nature still being true.
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