Hidden crime affecting hundreds of women | 60 Minutes Australia

rania Farrar is a woman in hiding in fear of her life in fear of her father all because she refused to be forced into marriage Rania was just 13 when she was kidnapped by her father's family and taken to Syria the Sydney teen would be held against her will and married off to her cousin a man she'd never met in a land she didn't know but refusing to be defeated Rania secretly plotted and pulled off a daring escape back to Australia she may now be home but she is not safe and because of that she's asked that we change her name yet despite the considerable risks Rania is speaking out tonight in the hope of lifting the veil on a hidden crime that affects hundreds of Australian women she told her story to Liz Hayes for seven years the ominous threat of a dark family secret has forced Rania Farrar to live in constant fear he's just an evil person it's less evil person that I've ever met or anyone would ever mean he's an awful awful awful man at the age of just 13 she was abducted by her own father and later forced to marry a cousin 15 years her senior when I see photos of my friends that I'd left behind photos of them going through high school and you tend formal and all that stuff I get jealous though I didn't get that Ronni a--'s story began when her mother Margaret met her father Muhammad here in Australia more than 35 years ago they moved to Surya Arabia but their marriage was punctuated by violence and threats he used to beat my mum he never beat us but yeah he beat my mom all the time it took many years but when Rania was 8 her mother finally fled bringing her five young children with her back to Australia for young Rania it was a revelation we mapped some my mother's family who were true blue Ozzy they had a big house with a backyard and they had dogs and know that normal Ozzy way it was really exciting I had met like friends at school and had our first sleepovers and stuff and Christmas and all that did you miss your dad at all I never thought about him again none of us did can I ask you about the tea is that it is it is it because it brings back memories that are difficult it's sort of it was some of the happiest days when we first got back Ronnie's family resettled in Sydney's West building a happier more peaceful life but eventually Rania's father made telephone contact he called twice and we spoke to him he always just said I'm gonna send money as usual and asked about school and said he'd come soon but we didn't care if we didn't or didn't he is past Ronnie are adapted to her new life preparing for high school making new friends but when she was 13 an extraordinary offer was made my mum told me that my eldest brother wanted to take me to Egypt they knew that I was obsessed with Egyptology and all that stuff so they said that they'd take me there for holiday for two weeks this is the beginning of the trip [Music] but the trip of a lifetime soon turned into a nightmare after just one week in Egypt Rania was told she would be taken to Jordan to see her father it was all a plan we lose there between him my mother and my father and do you know why they had made this plan well in their eyes I wasn't doing too well in Australia that mean do you think well getting into more trouble once I hit Year seven and high school smoking a cigarette before class or you know wagging a day at school talking to boys just things that every teenager starts to do so they said right I think we need to send her over there to get her set in her ways they thought that it would change me it became abundantly clear to you then in Jordan at least that that two-week holiday was now something else my passport was taken and I was told that I was going to live with my grandmother if you like a boy touch you rania was now living in her father's world first she endured an interrogation have you brought shame to our family have you I remember they just took me to this random paddock and just told me my dad just started throwing questions at me you know what do you do at school have you ever taken drugs have you ever been with a man and then the indignity of an examination so they wanted to check for my virginity and they told me that in order to enroll in a school here they need to make sure you're a virgin which wasn't true how did you feel about this the whole the whole time there's just it was just confusion confusion and fear and there's nothing else to describe it so you were tested so they did that yep some nurses came in and held me down yeah despite being a virgin Ronnie's father and brother won't satisfied they beat her regardless your dad beat you yeah and your brother my brother not as badly but I think it was more of a show of support for my dad and and how did he beat you like with what did well is this back at the house that my auntie's house she actually came in and you know she was screaming and crying and I don't know what she was saying in Arabic but she was asking them to stop I'm pretty sure and they did but afterwards I was still you know trying to tell them look I've never been with a man and my brother said yeah you dad knows because if he hadn't believed them then he would have killed you so what do you do when you hear something like that it's common practice over there everyone's used to it's quite a normal thing to kill your daughter for not being a virgin Rania was taken from Jordan to the Syrian capital Damascus and it's here she would live the next five years in a small apartment with her grandmother uncle and aunt and their baby what were you thinking all this time um just I suppose I was just in a depression the whole time I didn't think much really I just I just thought it was Thalia did you have any contact with your family yeah about a month later my mum called and from that day onwards she'd called me every three weeks and what did she say to you mum I just begged them to come home and what would she say we can't afford it one more year and when one more year went by I'd asked again and the same thing was said coming up Rania is forced to marry her cousin I'd never make eye contact with him and she puts her daily escape I can only leave when it's the perfect moment that's next on 60 minutes Rania Farah had her teenage years stolen from her she was kidnapped held captive by relatives in Syria and married off to a cousin she had never met Rania was as far from her native Sydney as you could imagine a prisoner in a foreign land most forced marriages end up as a life sentence but as Rania tells Liz Hays she had other plans holed up with her grandmother in a small flat in the Syrian capital Damascus Rania was now living in a strict Muslim world she attended an Islamic school and learned Arabic did you surrender at all to the life you were expected to live I did on the outside I am I did all the things they asked me to do and said all the things they asked me to say did you become a religious at all I did I was taught how to pray and fast Ramadan and do all those things what was also expected of her was that she would marry Rania was told she would have to win her second cousin how old was he uh he was in his 30s early 30s how'd you meet him yep did you like him we never spoke ever I'd never make eye contact with him I just met him on family visits and served coffee and tea what did you do about this marriage I went along with her I did all the things I needed to do we had the engagement party I got given the gold the money to go buy all the clothes that newlywed women buy and I did it all and put on the face and how did you feel about that I didn't feel anything because by that stage I was already planning my escape you are aware of something like 60 child brides in Sydney yes over the last three years we had over 60 cases 60 just seems like an extraordinary number yes if we see somebody hit or punished at the immigrant woman's Health Service in Sydney's West dr. Imam share beam is on a mission to put an end to forced marriages already Australia has seen one case of a twelve-year-old girl being forced into a marriage to a man more than twice her age how has that been able to occur so secretly it's not secret within our communities it's maybe secret to the eyes of the rest of the Australian community while tough new laws were introduced last year making forced marriage illegal dr. Shara beam wants greater community education but the case here is many of the young girls we meet and in touch with they refuse to inform the authority over their parents does that mean the law is futile yes dr. Shara beans fight for young girls is very personal at just 14 she too was offered up as a bride while still a school girl in Egypt when did it or did it become a situation where you thought I didn't want this oh yeah do you remember that of course of course when my late husband came to me and he said you know why I married you it's because you were young like a clay I can shape you the way I want and every time I rejected that I was beaten up you make the point that your husband died if that hadn't occurred that that situation didn't occur in your life where would you be today might be a divorced woman you might have got out I might I might I might be a dead woman because he might kill me before I move out Ronnie affero couldn't bear the thought of such a future and with the help of the neighbor plotted a daring escape I had a next-door neighbor a girl my age I was never allowed to talk to her sometimes if we were both cleaning our balconies at the same time we talked but she gave me a piece of paper one day with the British the British embassies a number did you tell her in some of your secret conversations that you needed to get out did she just know everyone knew everyone who'd ever met me knew anyone who'd ever come to the house or met my grandmother on my uncle's knew officials explained to rania that she would have to wait until she turned 18 and deemed an adult before they could help on the day before her birthday rania called the Embassy once they told me that a woman would wait for me the next morning at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus and I told them you know I don't have a particular time I can only leave when it's a perfect moment I can't give you a time and he said that she just she'd be there from 6 a.m. and wait onwards for as long as it took and I went to bed woke up for the morning prayer did the usual made my grandmother her coffee and staff and once she'd gone back to bed and I knew she'd fallen back to sleep I got up and got dressed I helped my shoes so that I wouldn't make any noise on the stairs on my way down and then I got to the bottom of the building but my shoes I'm walked out walked as fast as I could to the end of the street held a taxi and went to the four seasons with no money she could only hope the embassy would follow through on a promise to meet her at the hotel in downtown Damascus my heart was pounding this was your one and only chart one only you didn't get out I was gonna kill myself that very day because it would have been my entire life just there I wasn't going to do it that wasn't worth living for her fears were unfounded as promised the embassy contact was waiting the taxi pulled up right in front of the door and that's exactly where she was and she just walked straight over to the cab and paid him and I got out and she gave me a big hug and she took me inside and I am i met this Australian man I don't know what his job was exactly but he stayed for about half an hour got me to sign some papers and then left but Rania is only halfway to freedom coming up that's when things went bad Rania flees for the border but the plan unravels they started asking who my father was that's next on 60 minutes rania Ferrara is on the run my heart was pounding having been forced to marry her cousin in Syria the sydney teenager has fled the relatives have kept her captive for five years the day is her 18th birthday this was your one and only chance one only now with the help of diplomats she's trying to sneak out of Syria had to mail sort of bodyguards there and we got in the van and they said we're going to drive to Jordan then they they called the Department of Foreign Affairs here and I had to speak with them on the phone how nervous were you that this might go badly I wasn't nervous I felt pretty safe once I got in that van but when we reached the Jordanian border that's when things went bad what happened well they saw this girl wearing a hijab and you know no makeup and then this woman with a ton of makeup and modern clothes and and then two strange men that I'm not related to in suits and you know so the lie was that we were going to Jordan for a wedding and then coming back but even that was hard to believe considering how different we looked so they started asking who my father was and we had to try to convince them that you know he was Syrian but he married in Australia that's why there's no record of him having children etc etc it would take some fast talking but eventually they were waved through after five long years as a virtual prisoner in Syria Rania was finally on her way home a free woman how did that feel it hit home when it was early morning when I arrived and we flew over Sydney Harbour it's a pretty good vision that's gonna have my mom fell did your family understand what happened to you it's never spoken off no one ever talked about it no one ever asked what happened to this day they don't know what happened no one wanted to know what happened to you they just never asked they never asked how how I was feeling to be home which caused a lot more damage Rania's father Muhammad has returned to Australia bringing with him another wife and more children including daughters Rani religious the one time she has seen her father since his return he threatened him he told me to my face he said no Western Pig government is going to tell me how to raise my daughters and if it comes to it I'll slit your mother's throat and I'll see you sister story and I'll slit your throat you've since taken out a restraining order which is renewed every five years and if you didn't have that to be honest I don't think it really makes a difference to him but it just makes me feel a little bit better I've still had to make sure that I'm not in the same city he's in all that none of my information is just closed to him [Music] Mohammed has refused to meet with us but claims he has no knowledge at all of his daughter's time in Syria when we asked about his daughter's marriage all he would say was that forced marriage in Australia is illegal it's the kind of response that offers absolutely no comfort at all to his daughter why do you think this happened to you am i married with the wrong man a lot of people would be listening to your story and saying how on earth did your mum allow that to happen I think when you're bashed and beaten and terrorized for 20 years by your husband and then had the same treatment almost from your son after leaving your husband but I think they just broke her dr. Eman Sharabi knows some wounds can take a lifetime to heal have you recovered I recovered when my parents say sorry I recovered when my father and uncles were crying for what happened to me she says the responsibility of ensuring others don't suffer similar fates is one we must all shoulder as a community regardless of culture race or religion if you see it and you don't act on it you carry the guilt you carry the consequence you carry of being ignorant in a situation where you can step in participate in civic other person's life [Music] the future may not be certain for Rania but she is making plans she's studying at university and hopes one day to have a career in business but she has one clear message she'd like us all to hear what's your advice to other young women who may be young girls who may be in this position listening to you run for your life you're in a country if you are in Australia you're in a country that believes in women's rights and your safety and freedom so run cut them off your life will be the better for it

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 5,931,476

Rating: 4.6625948 out of 5

Keywords: Rania Farrah, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Syria, forced marriage, crime, investigation, women, rights

Id: eX_ILFHQtcQ

Length: 27min 42sec (1662 seconds)

Published: Mon May 14 2018