So is terrorism...what are you going to do about it?
Posted on 08/01/2005 1:11:03 PM PDT by Millee
AUSTRALIAN girls as young as 14 have been flown overseas and forced to marry older men in an attempt by their families to protect them from promiscuity and Western influences at home.
The Australian embassy in Beirut has been approached by 12 women in the past two years - seven of them minors - seeking help to return to Australia to escape arranged marriages.
Diplomats met Islamic clerics and Arabic community leaders in Sydney and Melbourne last year to ask for their help to prevent women being taken abroad to marry against their will, The Australian has learned.
Australian ambassador in Lebanon Stephanie Shwabsky said women were arriving at the embassy seeking help to return to Australia after fleeing their new husbands. "The cases that come to our attention are very serious," Ms Shwabsky said. "The young people involved are very upset and want our assistance and protection."
In one case, a 14-year-old girl arrived alone at the embassy seeking consular assistance, saying she had effectively been imprisoned in the home of a man she had been forced to marry by her father, who had taken her to Lebanon promising her a holiday. Consular staff contacted her mother in Australia and organised her flight home.
Ms Shwabsky said it appeared that many of the teenagers were unaware they were going to be married when they travelled to Lebanon, where the legal age for marriage is 16.
In most cases, the teenagers are married into families in northern Lebanon, where such marriage traditions are still strong.
Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said last night that the practice was unacceptable in Australian society and called on Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to ensure that consular staff helped the girls return safely to Australia.
"No Australian kid should ever be forced to marry someone against their will," Mr Rudd said. "No amount of cultural sensitivity should get in the road of this basic human right."
Australia's most prominent Islamic cleric, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, said he had heard of girls who had been taken to Lebanon for arranged marriages.
He condemned the practice as "against Islam". "This is cultural thinking, not religious. They (the parents) want her (their daughter) to be safe and to bring the families closer together, but these marriages are not true and are unfair for the children."
He also expressed concern about marriages of convenience by overseas husbands wanting to live in Australia.
He said Australian women of all ages were travelling to Lebanon so they could marry, but some men consented only so they could emigrate to Australia. The husband would then divorce his wife after living with her for two years and qualifying for a permanent resident's visa.
Ms Shwabsky has written to Arabic media in Australia warning against forced marriages and meets regularly with religious leaders and politicians in Lebanon who oppose the practice.
"The communities that have the highest number of these cases, I have spoken both publicly and privately with opinion-makers and local and senior clergy, including the chief judge of the Sunni Court in Tripoli," she said.
"In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra has also spoken to religious and community leaders." She said the embassy worked with local government, legal officials and families to help the victims fly home to Australia.
While teenagers rarely married before the Australian legal age of 18, many were facing pressure to get engaged as early as possible to avoid losing their religious and cultural identities and to protect themselves from Western practices, including sex before marriage.
"My cousin got married at 17 to a man around 28 years old," one girl from Melbourne said. "She completed half of Year 11 and now she's having a baby. She always tells me that I am wasting my time studying."
Rather than refuse, girls were eager to find a husband in their communities that placed the highest value on marriage and raising a family, welfare workers said. Others obliged because they felt unable to integrate into a society they think distrusts Muslims in the wake of the war on terrorism.
The welfare workers feared these girls were reducing their employment options and financial independence and isolating themselves from mainstream society. They stressed many arranged marriages were loving and successful but questioned whether young teenagers fully understood the responsibilities.
"Because of the ongoing tensions after September 11, rightly or wrongly they think that whatever chances they had of integration prior to September 11 don't exist now," Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria manager Joumanah El Matrah said.
The council had repeatedly approached the Victorian Government for funding to address the issue, involving possibly several hundred girls, but had so far been refused.
So is terrorism...what are you going to do about it?
Is there ANY Western country in the world that is NOT important these Islamist whackos?
I really think there should be ONE country- New Zealand perhaps- that should just bite the bullet and say "from now on, no more Muslims will be allowed to settle or visit here." There would be an outcry, but people would get over it and as the years went by and the Islamists took over everywhere else, people and capital would flock to New Zealand just like people are moving to suburbs in Europe to get away from the Muslims there.
This ties into the Islamic belief that females are lascivious and sexually promiscuous and will bed anything with humps.
We must, by all means, respect the backward, tribal sensibilities of a people mired in the 8th century.
This ties into the Islamic belief that females are lascivious and sexually promiscuous and will bed anything with humps.
We must, by all means, respect the backward, tribal sensibilities of a people mired in the 8th century.
"Is there ANY Western country in the world that is NOT important these Islamist whackos?"
Obviously I meant to say "importing" not "important."
Some countries are trying to do this by outlawing head coverings.
Call it what it is --child sexual abuse--condoned by Islam.
Geez louise.....
How does "Selling her to an old man" save her? (rhetorical question BTW)
I just finished reading the bio of Badia Masabni who was the driving force behind the Casino Opera in Cairo during WWII.
She was raped at 4, the man only served 7 years...oh yeah, and to 'save her' her family sold her to an old man when she hit puberty (but she ran away and became a dancer and the rest is history). :)
Seems half the entertainers in the ME have similar stories.
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