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Australian religious leaders can play key role in addressing forced marriage, says Anti-Slavery Australia head

Geelong, Australia

Religious leaders can play an important role in addressing the issue of forced marriage in Australia, according to Professor Jennifer Burn, director of Anti-Slavery Australia.

“Religious leaders have actually got a key role here…” Burn told Sight. “They are respected in their communities and are often turned for advice and assistance and they do have the potential to be able to mediate this issue with parents or guardians that can present alternates [to forced marriage]. They are also community leaders and they have a clear role in communities – they can send out a message to the community about what marriage is and what it should be and they can take a stand against forced marriage. And these kind of actions we know are really significant.”

Jennifer Burn

Jennifer Burn, director of Anti-Slavery Australia. PICTURE: Supplied.

Burn was speaking as the organisation – a specialist legal practice, research and policy centre committed to the abolition of modern slavery based at the University of Technology Sydney, publishes what they describe as “Australia’s most comprehensive guide on how to prevent, identify and respond to cases of forced marriage in Australia”.

The Frontline Worker Guide is aimed at people who have a “community-facing role” like school teachers, health professionals, youth workers and those working with refugees as well as religious leaders and is freely available on the My Blue Sky website. It provides in-depth information about forced marriage, its causes and the motivations that influence it as well as addressing myths about the issue and providing good practice principles for identifying and responding to forced marriage. 

Forced marriage is the most identified and reported form of modern slavery in Australia with Australia Federal Police data showing there were 79 reports of forced marriage out of a total of 224 reports of modern slavery across the country in 2020-21.

Burn described forced marriage, a form of modern slavery, as a “terrible form of abuse which is inflicted mainly on young people, often girls and women, where they are forced into a marriage without freely and fully consenting”.



She said that cases involving forced marriage make up the majority of the 400 modern slavery cases that Anti-Slavery Australia’s legal practice is currently dealing with. 

“They’re either fearful of a forced marriage that might take place or they’re in a marriage.”

Burn said that while forced marriage is a crime in Australia under the Commonwealth Criminal Code, “one of the huge challenges has been that, although most reports to the Australian Federal Police of modern slavery have been forced marriage, there haven’t been any convictions yet”.

“[T]hat recognises the unique context of forced marriage which is that it generally takes place in socially conservative communities and where the people affected just don’t want to get their family members into trouble. They want to stay with their family, they want to stay with their siblings, so participating in law enforcement initiatives is just something they don’t want to do. But the consequences can be devastating.”


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Burn said that many people in Australia are unaware of what forced marriage, which can involve physical and mental harm as well as long-term consequences for relationships with family members and communities, actually is.

“It is unrecognised and unreported,” she said. “And that’s part of the reason that we’ve developed the My Blue Sky website and the Frontline Workers Guide – to try and raise awarness about these issues and contextualise forced marriage so it can be more readily recognised.”

Burn said that reports of forced marriage in Australia have been made across the spectrum of faith traditions.

“It is something that’s been reported quite broadly and our clients come from many different faith traditions and communities and backgrounds.”

The ASA have held forums for faith leaders in the past and Burn said they will be convening another in the next 12 months. 

“I think the clearest, most effective message is when religious leaders incorporate this into their practice and address this in an open way when discussing relationships and marriage and so on,” Burn said. “And make it clear within comunities that consent is such a vital part of a marriage because the consequences of not having consent are devastating and long-term and really they blight the marriage.”

 

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