Built from the main sociological research works and public debate around this question, the present article proposes to characterise resistances to addressing the question of forced marriage. It tackles the complexity of definition and shows how quantification becomes impossible. But simply communicating a statistic can be sufficient for the phenomenon to emerge on the public scene and feature on the political agenda. The author reports on to how the debate is structured around two currents of thought, antiracism and antisexism. On the border between the intimate and the public, at the crossroads of racial and sexist forms of discrimination and in a political context of constant instrumentalisation of immigration, thinking seriously about forced marriage requires us to ponder the complexity and contradiction in a materialist tradition of constitution of facts and explanation of the categories implemented.

Antiracism forced marriage Women's right Family violences Gender

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