avoiding travelling ! help needed for a friend!

[POTTSY52]

Hi there, My friend is being forced to travel to India by her family to see her 'guru' and talk of an arranged marriage, she doesn't want to go and I have come up with a cunning plan to get a doctor to sign her off to not beable to fly. My problem is we need to think of a good reason to not fly (preferably with minimal symptoms that are obvious), anyone know of any viruses or things that you can't fly with??   any help is really appreciated, thank you  

[brachiopod]

Zoonotic Variant Avian Influenza

[jake-the-peg]

Naughty Brachiopod! Not Nunny

From BA's web site   

Medical conditions and fitness to fly
...

Ear problems
In normal circumstances the air in your middle ear and sinuses is able to enter and escape, as it expands and contracts, without difficulty (the popping you feel or hear as the aircraft ascends or descends). If there is any blockage, such as may occur if you are suffering from sinusitis or an infection of the middle ear (otitis media), severe pain (or even perforation of the ear drum) may result and you should not fly until it is resolved. 

...
 
 http://www.britishairways.com/travel/healthmedcond/publi c/en_gb#10

[JudgeJ]

Strangely I was under the impression that forcing somebody to travel against her will was not quite, how can I put it, legal in this country.

How is this force to be implemented? Is your friend to be put in a crate and flown out as cargo? Or is it simply that life will be made so uncomfortable for her if she fails to comply?

I don't think your problem is that of the need to think of a good reason for her not to fly. I think her problem is the need to establish why she is being coerced into doing something she so clearly does not want to do and to summon the courage to say that she is not going to do it.

Your combined efforts would be better directed towards tackling the root cause of the problem. After all, she cannot remain “ill” forever!

[pega]

SHE should go and talk to Citizens advice or someone if she is working her boss and they should have a union as been suggested this is not our way of life. this seems to be lack of courage to face cultures her family cling to yet have come to live in a different culture  she should has been said stand up to them and make up mind where she wants to be.

[Lily_b]

The Foreign Office have a special unit that helps people who find themselves being forced into marriage whether arranged by relatives or others...

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1094234857863

There are phone numbers on the site and the earlier she seeks help, the better. I hope everything works out.

[POTTSY52]

thanks all for your comments and help, I have printed this off for her to look at, I agree the route problem needs to be addressed but it isn't always that easy when your whole family are against you living your way of life and would disown you if you go against their ways, I have lost my father through the same kind of thing 'conditional' love and I feel so much for her but she'll finally break free just not in the next year I don't think

thanks again

[JudgeJ]

I find it extremely sad that you talk of her "breaking free" from her family. If that really is the case it might be better if they did disown her. In the long term she'd be better off.

[Dom Tuk]

Cynical though this may sound, the best thing to do in such a situation is to renounce your British Citizenship and take on Indian citizenship (by descent). The marriage offers will soon dry up when the bride says she is not British but an Indian passport holder. In reality ofcourse you never lose your right to British citizenship and can always get it back. But just saying it causes enough of a shock.

[crumpeter]

A friend of mine has been told to avoid flying because of the problem she has with her, Eustation tubes in her ears.
Apparently its something to do with the air pressure, air cant move through the tubes quickly enough and it causes a lot of pain.
I dont know if that could be used as an excuse?