(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Australia's government is being called on to take the lead on ending child marriage.
A report by child rights group Plan International shows there are about 250 known cases of child marriage in Australia.
Worldwide, at least 14 million girls are married under-age each year.
The report says more should be done to promote girls' education and rights to tackle the problem.
Zara Zaher reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Australia is probably not the first country that comes to mind regarding the issue of child marriages.
While it's not as widespread as it may be elsewhere, child rights group Plan International Australia says the practice does occur in Australia.
Chief Executive Ian Wishart says the risks for girls forced to marry at a young age are concerning.
"The first thing that happens is that the child is withdrawn from school and no one seems to know where the child has gone so first of all there's education. But then the marriages themselves are often to very much older men so there's a power imbalance from the very beginning. So this often translates into emotional and physical abuse or violence within the marriage that's very harmful to that young person. And then early pregnancy is often another result which is risky and can result in complications and even death."
Mr Wishart believes there are two main factors driving the practice of child marriage.
He says some parents have strong cultural stereotypes for their girls' role as mothers or wives.
Others believe children are the property of parents.
Melba Marginson from the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition agrees.
She says educating the parents and the community is key to tackling the issue.
"I really think that the public should be more concerned about the need to educate our young people about their rights and about their right to choose whom they will marry, especially because they are already Australian. And in Australia you have every right to choose whom you want to marry. And in our experience because we are practically seeing members of those communities on a daily basis, that the families are actually very open to changing their values. Some may take a longer time but others are already changing."
A former child bride from Afghanistan was coerced into an arranged marriage at the age of 16 in Australia because her parents thought they were acting in her best interest.
She wishes to be called Layla Nazeri, to protect her identity.
Ms Nazeri attributes a lack of knowledge about her rights, and the power of ingrained cultural values to obey her parents' wishes, for enduring four years of marriage in an abusive relationship with a man almost 20 years her senior.
"I was a young girl and very naive and didn't know about my rights as an individual, as a human, as a girl and as an Australian, that I should have stood up for myself, or say no. I was thinking that it's all part of the culture and we have to go through this so I just thought that's normal."
Ian Wishart, from Plan International Australia, says changing community attitudes is difficult but possible.
Mr Wishart says when children are taken overseas for marriage, they're difficult to monitor by Australian authorities.
For this reason, his organisation is urging the Australian government to come up with an anti-child marriage strategy for their aid program overseas.
"This is a global problem. And often the girls that are forced into a child marriage here in Australia, are taken from Australia to be married in another country and often will remain there for some years before returning to Australia. So you can't just tackle it here in Australia, you have to tackle it around the world. We urge the Australian government to use its aid program to help in this problem of child marriage, by helping girls to complete their education. And while they're in education explaining to parents that an education and an economic job is a better outcome than an early child marriage."
Former child bride Layla Nazeri supports the concept of dealing with the issue at a grassroots level.
"If we can send funding or support that we can educate our people overseas because that's (where) actual problems start from overseas. And they think it's a normal way of living and that's how it's been in generations and generations and it has to be like that forever. But we have to bring awareness at the root level in there (overseas) as well as here because a lot of families that I know are still continuing the same routine of as they were doing overseas."
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