Australian court rescues woman from forced wedding

A Federal court has stopped a teenagers parents from sending her to marry a stranger in Lebanon. Photo / Thinkstock

A Federal court has blocked the forced marriage of a 16-year-old girl being sent to Lebanon by her parents to a man she had met only once.

The ruling, which follows a similar case involving a 14-year-old girl, was made after the intended bride sought legal aid advice in secret. It comes ahead of a campaign to pressure leaders at next month's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth into action.

Australia is also considering new measures to protect girls and women being forced into early or unwanted arranged marriages overseas.

Existing laws prevent a person from being sold, transferred or inherited into a marriage, but relate only to human trafficking or kidnap.

In the latest case Magistrate Joe Harman banned the unnamed girl from leaving the country in April, but the judgment has just been released.

The ruling was put into force two weeks before the intended marriage.

The judgment restrained the girl's parents from removing her from Australia and from harassing, threatening or intimidating her, or questioning her about the court proceedings.

The parents were ordered to surrender her passport, and an alert was issued to airports in case they tried to send her overseas before the travel documents were surrendered or cancelled.

The published judgment said the girl had made it very clear that she had told her parents she did not want to fly to Lebanon to marry her arranged husband-to-be.

It said the girl was fearful for her personal safety and was frightened of her mother's reaction to the proceedings, although her father was opposed to the arrangement.

Harman said he was satisfied the girl risked psychological damage without court intervention.

He said the girl had shown great bravery in challenging the marriage and the Islamic Lebanese culture in which she had been raised through the courts.

"Her actions in approaching the Legal Aid Commission, let alone this court, might be perceived as disrespectful of her parents and disobedient of their will."

He said forced marriages were contrary to Australian legal processes and, without genuine consent, would be void.

"It is not the right of any parent to cause their child to be married against their will, whether in accordance with the Australian law or otherwise."