‘Brave’ Teenager Gets Australian Court to Halt Forced Wedding in Lebanon
A 16-year-old girl secretly took legal action against her parents in Australia to escape an arranged marriage in Lebanon in what a magistrate has called an ''act of great bravery,” Australian newspapers reported on Friday.
The dailies quoted Federal magistrate Joe Harman as saying that he was satisfied there was a psychological risk to the girl unless the court intervened.
"The young person's evidence makes very clear that she has expressed to her parents that she does not want to go to Lebanon and does not want to marry the person proposed," he said.
"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," he added.
Harman praised the girl's bravery in using the legal system to challenge her parents' authority.
He 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 newspapers said.
He ordered that they surrender her passport to the court.
He also ordered the girl be placed on the airport watch list and Australian Federal Police maintain an airport watch for her.
However, Harman said he was not criticizing any culture that had arranged marriages. ''The arrangements proposed should not be judged or criticized from a Western perspective, but must be viewed through the eyes of those who live and appreciate that culture.”
The orders were made just two weeks before the planned wedding in Lebanon in April. Details of the case have been revealed in a judgment published this week.
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