From an Australian correspondent.
So, first of all, they are not 'child brides'.
They are children who have been brutally molested and abused by their parents and creepy Imams and even creepier bridegrooms with religious sanction.
And a hotline is not really going to help. It's a colossal appeasement band-aid.
This is horrifying, but is it really a Western problem, and if so why?
"One woman recently came to her in tears and said her husband, who was
still awaiting clearance in the detention centre, threatened to kill
her if she learnt English or went out of the house without him."
''This is happening in Australia. We are not in the suburbs of Afghanistan - this is the suburbs of Sydney.''
(Probably Lebanon would be a more apt geographical characterization of the origins of the offending parties...)
"A mother and father came into her office and proudly spoke of
how they had just celebrated the wedding of their daughter in Iraq. Dr. Sharobeem had said to them, ''Fantastic! Where is she?''
They pointed to a petite and silent 14-year-old girl sitting next to
them"
''I looked at the child in the room and I froze,'' Dr. Sharobeem said."
"The child bride was two months pregnant and in need of a doctor. Not wanting to scare the family, Dr. Sharobeem told them they
had committed a crime but promised to keep their secret if they made an
appointment for their daughter to see a nurse"
"She planned on reporting the under-age marriage to police
once she knew the girl was safe but her parents never returned.
''The
father rang and said, 'Ah, doctor, my daughter lost the baby and we
actually send her back to Iraq, so you don't need to worry about her.'''
The problem is not "education".
Western countries really ought not to concern themselves with the attempted "re-education" which will be resisted.
Why waste time, and effort and money on such futility.
Officialdom, as we saw in the Shafia case-fails individuals such as these women all the time. Over and over.
Bureaucracy is indifferent by default-despite protestations to the contrary.
("We're from the government, and we're here to help you.")
And simply put, barbaric tribal customs should just be prevented from spreading across the oceans-contained and not triaged.
