Arranged Marriage Interrupted

While I feel proud of this poor young girl, I just hope she doesn't become an honor killing. God bless her for being wise enough to not be essentially sold off into forced slavery.

A LEBANESE family based in Sydney has been banned from taking their daughter to their home country for an arranged marriage.

The Federal Magistrates Court acted after the girl, aged 17, called Australian Federal Police from her home while her mother was out, saying she had been booked to fly out of Australia against her will.

The girl, who cannot be named, wanted police to put her name on an airport watch list so she could not pass through passport control without triggering an alarm.

The girl told police her mother, known in court documents as Ms Khyatt, 43, her stepfather, Mr Khyatt, 46, her father, Mr Kandal, and other family members supported her removal from Australia for the purpose of marriage.

She told police she might have to hang up at any time but gave them enough information about herself for police to apply to the Federal Magistrates Court to have her name placed on watchlists at Australian ports, preventing her removal from the commonwealth.

The order also prevents her mother, stepfather, and father, from "assaulting, threatening, harassing or intimidating" her.

Neither the parents nor the girl appeared in court, and it seems that the parents did not know that the girl had taken court action.

The case, known as Kandal and Khyatt and Ors, was heard on May 6, with the order made public on May 27. The court heard federal police were contacted by the girl and "formed the view that the child was quite frightened".

"The child said words to the effect that she was being taken against her will by her mother and perhaps other family members to Lebanon to be married," the AFP said in its application to the court.

"The child gave enough personal details to the federal police officer to enable checks of her identity.

H/T Tim Blair.