Greens women’s rights spokesperson reveals she’s in an arranged marriage

THE NSW Greens’ spokeswoman on women’s rights reveals she is in an arranged marriage but denies she was forced.

THE NSW Greens’ spokesperson on womens’ rights, Dr Mehreen Faruqi has revealed she is in an arranged marriage during a parliamentary debate about human trafficking.

Ms Faruqi, who was born in Pakistan and is also the Greens’ spokesperson on “other issues concerning the status of women in Australia”, revealed she was in an arranged marriage as MPs debated serious issues around human trafficking, including young girls being forced into marriage.

Greens MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi says there is a difference between arranged marriage and forced marriage. Picture: Paul Miller

“If I could clarify something on that line of questioning,” she told the committee inquiry.

“There is a difference between arranged marriages and forced marriages. Arranged marriages could be forced marriages, but not necessarily all arranged marriages are forced marriages.

“Mine was an arranged marriage and it was not a forced marriage at all. I just wanted to clarify that.”

Dr Faruqi, an academic, former civil engineer and keen cricketer, was interviewing Australian Institute of Criminology violence and exploitation expert Samantha Lyneham, along with other MPs, when she made the comments.

Ms Lyneham had told the inquiry about her study of 13 victims of forced marriage in Australia and New Zealand, including some who feared they would be subjected to violence or “honour killings” should they try to leave.

“The majority of cases the young women took active steps to leave their situation and they reached out for help through a domestic violence service, through their schools, through family members that they could trust or through their friends and colleagues,” Ms Lyneham said.

“They were assisted to leave that situation, largely with the support of a domestic violence service.”

Nationals MP Trevor Khan, who was chairing the inquiry, apologised to Ms Faruqi for blurring the distinction between arranged and forced marriages, “I am sorry I gave that impression.”

Earlier he had suggested young women are being brought into Australia under arranged marriages.

Former community services minister Pru Goward said in 2014 that forced marriages involving underage girls may be common in some Sydney communities.

“Is it not a real problem if people are coming in under what I will call an arranged marriage?”, Mr Khan told the hearing.

“An interview at Immigration is unlikely to produce much tangible evidence because what is likely to be a young woman has no alternative — she has got nowhere to go back to — has she?”

Australian police have investigated a series of recent cases involving forced marriages.

The then community services minister Pru Goward said in 2014 that forced marriages involving underage girls may be common in some Sydney communities.

She was speaking after a 26-year-old man was charged with 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl and moved into a house with her in Sydney’s southwest.

Originally published as Greens women’s rights spokesperson reveals she’s in an arranged marriage