10,000 Muslim child brides in 10 years, says Hannah Yeoh

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 29 Jul 2018 10:27AM · 2 Comments

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh says the ministry will declare in Parliament next week its stand on the matter of child marriage. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, July 29, 2018.

THERE were 10,000 cases of underage Muslim marriages in the past decade, with Sarawak recording the highest number of the cases, Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said.

These figures were from 2007 to 2017, she was quoted as saying yesterday by Utusan Malaysia.

During the same period, there were 4,999 cases of underage non-Muslim marriages, she said, during a working visit to Kota Baru, Kelantan.

She said the ministry would be meeting women excos from the individual state governments about raising the minimum age for marriage and ensuring the welfare of such young couples.

“It is not only happening in Kelantan, it is happening in Sarawak where it is a tribal custom,” she said.

A 41-year-old man in Kelantan recently made headlines and sparked outrage when he was reported to have taken a 11-year-old girl as a bride by in Kelantan.

Yeoh said the ministry would declare its stand on the matter of child marriage in Parliament next week.

“Why are there parents allowing their children to marry as minors when caring for their children should be their responsibility?

Yeoh said the ministry wanted to understand why the number of underaged marriages was so high.

Raising the marriageable age to 18 is one of Pakatan Harapan’s election promises.

To fulfil the promise, the new government faces the challenge of standardising the country’s Islamic laws as the individual states have jurisdiction over Islam.

Under civil law, the minimum age for marriage is 18. 

Under state Islamic laws, boys may get married at 18 and girls at 16. However, the shariah court have authority to approve underage marriages . – July 29, 2018.

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Comments

  • dont forget to curb poverty
    its the key

    Posted 5 years ago by Lan Lan · Reply

  • Under Malaysian laws 16 years old and below, both non muslim and muslim is allowed to marry by permission courts and relevant authorities. Let it be and don't change it. For your information, in US we proud for their "statue of liberty" itself for the last 15 years recorded more than 207,000 child married and as low as 10 years age. Malaysian court decided/ruled the marriage of 40+ & 11 yo was null/illegal. It's shown Malaysian law much more better than US ? Child born without wedlock considered illegal and not entitled / no right inherit from their bilogical father.
    I hope government to give more effort and prevention step for this alarming social problems:-
    1. increasing nos of underage addicted to pornography videos and photos.
    2. increasing nos of underage involvement / addicted in sexual relationships.
    3. increasing nos of underage pregnancy without married/wedlock.
    4. increasing nos of baby born by underage without wedlock.
    5. increasing nos of baby dumping and abortion cases by underage.
    As a government, please share/reveal to us your data/survey for this 5 items, and tell us your best counter solution for this alarming social problems.

    Posted 5 years ago by Hafaizal Hassan · Reply