Lesley Ciarula Taylor Staff Reporter
An Australian Muslim teenager on the verge of being married against her will in Lebanon has won a court order against her parents.
Federal Magistrate Joe Harman praised the 16-year-old’s “act of great bravery” in seeking help from Legal Aid New South Wales to stop her parents.
Harman ordered the girl’s name placed on an Australia-wide airport watch list and her passport surrendered so her parents couldn’t smuggle her out of the country.
The girl, who was born in Australia, was two weeks away from being married in Lebanon to a man she had met once, the court judgment said. Her 23-year-old sister was engaged to a relative of her intended husband.
“The application is one that is becoming increasingly common both before this court and the family court,” Harman said in his judgment delivered in April but released only this week.
“It is not the right of any parent to cause their child to be married against their will, whether in accordance with Australian law or otherwise.”
Sydney is home to about half of the 340,000 Muslims in Australia, according to the 2006 Census.
A volunteer at the Voice of Islam radio station in Sydney told the Star he had spoken with the teenager’s mother Friday morning, who said she had never wanted to force her daughter into marriage.
“She was ready to go by her own will, but she met this guy here and fell in love with him, so she refused to go to Lebanon,” said the station volunteer, who declined to give his name. “The mother is crying and saying, ‘I don’t want her to go to Lebanon by force’.”
As well as Voice of Islam, Muslim Community Radio also broadcasts in Sydney. Jane Pritchard, executive director of Legal Aid New South Wales, which helped the teenager win her court order, has appeared on Muslim Community Radio.
Categories: Crime