HANNAH Yeoh has expressed fears for the national plan against child marriage with the appointment of a PAS lawmaker as her replacement in the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

“What will happen to our national road map to fight child marriage with the appointment of (an) MP from PAS as deputy minister of @KPWKM,” she tweeted in response to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s cabinet unveiled yesterday.

Yeoh’s successor, Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Mohd Yusof, is known for her endorsement of child marriage.

The National Strategy Plan in Handling the Causes of Child Marriage was launched in January by then women, family and community development minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who also held the deputy prime minister’s post.

The plan aims to prepare the ground for a wider acceptance of a ban on child marriage, or raise the minimum marriageable age in all states by addressing the issue’s root causes.

Siti Zailah has in the past defended child marriage by saying it does not amount to a sexual offence against children, leading to her crossing swords with former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching in Parliament.

The PAS lawmaker has also taken Yeoh to task on Twitter, demanding an explanation as to why there is a high number of child marriage cases among the Chinese.

Siti Zailah defended marriage as “a social contract that is holy when it makes halal a forbidden relationship”.

Under the previous Pakatan Harapan government, five states and the Federal Territories agreed to raise the minimum marriageable age for Muslim girls to 18 through amendments to state Islamic laws. However, only Selangor has actually seen this through.

The PH administration had also been working towards a federal law raising the minimum marriageable age for Muslim girls to 18.

Under Islamic family law, girls can marry at 16 and boys at 18. Those even younger can still get married with the approval of the shariah court.

Women’s rights activists have expressed their concern to The Malaysian Insight about whether the new cabinet will be sensitive and progressive when it comes to women and children’s rights, citing in particular the previous government’s moves to address child marriage. – March 10, 2020.