Child Marriages In Malaysia

Malaysia along with over 90 other countries adopted a united nations resolution to end child early or forced marriages at the human rights council last week.

Child marriages in malaysia. Children are actually allowed to marry under existing malaysian laws. Although shariah court judges have the authority to grant permission to boys under 18 and girls under 16 to marry there is no standard operating procedure to guide them through the child marriage application process. In malaysia the legal minimum marriage age is 18 but it is 16 for muslim girls. Child marriage has been shown to negatively impact the child s physical and mental health reduce his or her education and economic opportunities and increase the risk of domestic and sexual abuse.

Child marriage is rooted in gender inequality and the belief that girls and women are somehow inferior to boys and men. Statistics have shown that over 700 million women in the current era are married before reaching the legal age of 18. There are nearly 9 000 such cases from 2010 to 2015 6 268 muslims and 2 775 non muslims. The federal government.

Not too long ago it was also revealed that a report documenting 20 000 sexual abuse cases involving malaysian children had been hidden by the previous barisan nasional government for the past 10 years. Unfortunately child marriage seems to be especially prevalent in the east malaysian state of sarawak with girls 15 years and below often getting married off. Child marriage is not a fringe issue in malaysia. The ministry was replying to batu kawan mp kasthuri patto who had asked for the child marriage statisics in both the civil and shariah courts since january 2020 and their locations as well as the progressin government s efforts to curb child marriages and towards the seven states in malaysia that disagreed with fixing the minimum age for marriage at 18.

In malaysia child marriage is still very much prevalent say civil society organisations. All existing legal frameworks is therefore a key first step to ending child marriage in malaysia. Those aged below 16 can marry with the consent of the syariah court. The recent controversy surrounding the marriage of an 11 year old child to a 41 year old man has brought into focus the immediate need to end child marriages in malaysia.

Malaysia will introduce laws to protect the interest and well being of those involved in child marriages. Kuala lumpur april 14 for better or worse tasek gelugor mp datuk shabudin yahaya s recent remarks in parliament has cast a spotlight on child marriages in malaysia. Based on 2000 malaysian census data there were 6 800 girls and 4 600 boys under the age of 15 who were.