Australian teen saved from marriage

MELBOURNE - An Australian family court has ordered the family of a 14-year-old Muslim girl not to send her overseas for marriage and surrender her passport.

The Melbourne girl told child protection officers that she was not attending school because her father did not approve. She said she was engaged to be married and was planning to travel overseas to meet her fiance, The Age reported Wednesday.

The teenager said that she had been engaged for a month to the 17-year-old man and that she had only seen a photograph of him.

The girl, however, said that she had not been forced into the engagement by her parents and that if she changed her mind after meeting her fiance, she would not have to marry him.

The Department of Human Services was alerted in June when the girl stopped attending school.

In an affidavit to the court, the child protection officers said the girl did not appear to understand the consequences of marriage.

“She would be deprived of a school education, and she may be at risk of sexual exploitation and emotional harm,” the affidavit said.

In its ruling, the family court blocked the teenager from leaving Australia until she is 18 and ordered that she be placed on a Federal Police “watch list” at international points of departure.

The court also ordered the family to surrender the girl’s passport. The family are reported to be Muslims from the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.