Women, Girls Seek Escape in Lebanon

Australian women and teenage girls of Lebanese descent have approached their embassy in Beirut seeking help to escape arranged marriages and return to Australia, a newspaper said.

The Australian Embassy has been approached in the last two years by 12 women and teens, seven of them under 18, who were fleeing their husbands, the Australian newspaper reported.

Ambassador Stephanie Shwabsky said it appeared many teenagers were unaware that they were going to be married when they traveled to Lebanon, where the legal age for marriage is 16, the newspaper said.