Outcry over Malaysian child marriages

August 2010 07:09:11 PM Source: AAPA Malaysian state's decision to allow child marriages caused an outcry on Wednesday, with rights groups condemning new rules that allow Muslim girls below 16 years to wed.

The decision by the Islamic religious council in southern Malacca state has been billed as an attempt to curb premarital sex and baby dumping, after a string of cases of newborns being abandoned.

"Child marriage amounts to paedophilia. We should not condone child marriages," said Ivy Josiah, executive director of leading activist group Women's Aid Organisation.

Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam reportedly said that marriages for Muslims below the current minimum age of 16 years for females and 18 for males would be allowed with the permission of parents and religious courts

Ali Rustam, who is the chairman of the influential state Islamic council, said the plan would reduce the number of cases of babies born out of wedlock and cut incidents of adultery...

"It is a practical move in preventing cases of unwed teenage mothers and other social problems," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper on Wednesday.

The report said that in the first six months of the year 174 Muslim women gave birth outside wedlock in the state. All were below 20-years-old.

In Malaysia, Muslims make up about 60 per cent of the 28 million population and are subject to religious Sharia law which operates in parallel with the civil legal system.

Josiah said that Malaysia recognises those aged under 18 years as children, and that allowing them to marry early would deprive them of an education and the right to choose a partner.

"It is a knee-jerk reaction. It is really a regressive move. It is turning back the clock. This man (the chief minister) should resign," she said.

Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, the minister for women, family and community development, said that underage marriage was "morally and socially unacceptable".

"Placing the heavy burden and responsibility of parenthood on children can deprive them of their rights to a full and harmonious development," she said.

Teen marriage on case-to-case basis
http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Teenmarriageoncase-to-casebasis/Article/

PUTRAJAYA: Permission to marry for under-aged students is not across the board but determined on a case-by-case basis, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.

Commenting on the move by the Melaka government to allow male students below the age of 18 and female students below 16 to marry, he said this was conditional upon the Syariah Court giving permission
to do so.

"Under Islamic enactments for marriage, the minimum age is 18 for males and 16 for females but there can be exceptions.

"As such, the action by the Melaka Islamic Religious Council to permit under-age marriage is provided for under the law but has to be done on a case-by-case basis," he told reporters after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), here today.


The council and the Melaka Islamic Religious Department yesterday agreed to give the leeway to students in a move to check pregnancy out of wedlock and baby dumping.

The MOA allows Jakim to manage 1MDB scholaships for students from religious schools. - Bernama