Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

Assignment

Factual

Investigations and journeys into the heart of global events from BBC correspondents.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Assignment: Wives Wanted in the Faroe Islands

Documentaries

News

Wives Wanted in the Faroe Islands

27/04/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, Wives Wanted in the Faroe Islands

Men in the Faroe Islands are having to look far beyond their shores for marriage

The Faroe Islands are facing a shortage of women of marriageable age. Many of them have left and not returned so men are now travelling to South-East Asia looking for love.

Men in the Faroe Islands are having to look far beyond their shores for marriage. The remote, windswept archipelago between Norway and Iceland, with close ties to Denmark, has seen an influx of women from South-East Asia who have come to marry Faroese men. 

In recent years the islands have been experiencing a declining population. Young women in particular have been leaving the islands, often for education, and not returning. One complaint from them is that their close-knit community has too conservative and masculine a culture where sheep farming, hunting and fishing are still dominant. For some women Faroese society is simply too small, too constraining. 

There are now approximately 2,000 fewer women of marrying age in the total population of 50,000. In response, some men have been looking elsewhere for partners, from countries like Thailand and the Philippines. Tim Ecott meets these foreign women adjusting to life in this isolated group of islands where the elements are harsh and the language impenetrable. 

Producer: John Murphy 

(Photo: Jan, Athaya and Jacob beside a fjord in the Faroe Islands)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Assignment

Wives Wanted in the Faroe Islands

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service