Jail term for Underage Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is now increased from 7 years to 21 years. This was announced during a Multi-Cultural Media Briefing that was co-hosted by Ministers Pru Goward and Victor Dominello. The briefing was held on 9 February 2015 in Sydney and was attended by multicultural media including this writer. Goward is Minister for Women while Dominello is Minister for Citizenship and Communities.
“The aim of today’s briefing is to bring together editors, producers and reporters to talk about the vital role they can play in this campaign,” Ms Goward said.
“An issue I want to talk about today is Female Genital Mutilation… infertility, complications at childbirth and later in life, or even death can all result from this unnecessary practice.”
Ms Goward also brought up the issue about forced child marriage. “The Child Not Bride campaign reinforces that every girl deserves a childhood and the chance for a bright future, including the right to choose who, when and if she wants to marry.”
“This awareness campaign aims to eliminate secrecies around the community by ensuring that parents and community leaders understand the complications involved…” she added.
Mr Dominello said the Child Not Bride campaign has been “focus-tested on young women and community leaders from multicultural communities, and will be supported by fact sheets translated into Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Nepalese and Hindi.”
During the open forum, a lady from the Muslim community clarified that the practice of FGM and forced child marriage is not part of the Islam religion nor is it in the Koran. She said that the practice is more of a cultural tradition and is not encouraged by the Muslim community in Australia.
“FGM is a cultural practice in communities that observe it, and it is wrong to associate Islam with such a harmful practice. Islam has clearly stipulated provisions for the protection of basic human rights and it upholds the sanctity of the human body. Any practice that violates these rights and causes harm to the human body without any justification is prohibited.”
(www.unfpa.org)