KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 ― PAS lawmaker Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan said he would not allow his daughter to marry her attacker if she were raped, but would not disagree with parents who would consent to such a situation.
The Kota Baru MP was weighing in the controversial suggestion yesterday by an Umno representative who said girls who wed their rapists would be spared a “bleak future”, amid debate over a proposal to ban child marriages.
“We cannot disagree to this if the victim's parents agree to their child being married by a rapist, but if this happens to my daughter, I would not allow it,” Takiyuddin told reporters at Parliament.
But the PAS secretary-general also said the rapist should not be let off even after marriage.
“How can the person who ruined our child be allowed to marry them? It's an unacceptable excuse,” he stressed.
Takiyuddin also pointed out that even in Islam, rape is frowned upon and harsher sentences should be meted out.
“Rape itself is wrong in the eyes of the law, even socially it is wrong as well as legally. Rape is something serious that has to be curbed, that's why we agreed with the Sexual Offences Act,” he said referring to the recently passed Sexual Offences Against Children Act.
Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahya told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that rape victims should be married to their attackers as it will reduce social problems.
He made the statement while objecting to DAP lawmaker Teo Nie Ching who proposed the new Sexual Offences Against Children Act also include an additional clause banning child marriages.
