Our family is not provided for, laments second wife of man with child bride

KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — The second wife to a rubber trader who took an 11-year-old girl as his third spouse complained that her husband did not provide for his family.

In a report by The New York Times (NYT) yesterday, Siti Noor Azilah said Che Abdul Karim, 41, was stingy with his wealth and failed to provide financially for her and the four children she has with him, including one who suffers from Spina Bifida.

“He is so stingy with us, but he has enough money to get married to Ayu and take her on holiday,” Siti, who works as a baker to make ends meet, told the US paper, referring to the 11-year-old bride.

“Their father never takes care of them, he doesn’t even like children.”

“Except one, that Ayu,” she said.

Strife within the family unit had continued to grow, the NYT reported, as the first two wives teamed up to make Che Abdul Karim choose between them or Ayu.

“We have said to him, it is us or that girl,’ said Siti.

“We said, you choose. You cannot have all three of us.”

Nevertheless, the one to suffer the most from the saga that was brought into the public light on June 30 was Che Abdul Karim’s 14-year-old daughter, who now has to call her best friend Ayu her “stepmother”.

“My best friend is my stepmother now,” said Norazila, who said she did not know of Ayu’s plans to marry her father.

“It doesn’t make any sense.”

Che Abdul Karim also has two children with his first wife, Nuraini Che Nawi, who runs a restaurant and grocery store next to their home.

NYT reported that Ayu’s mother worked at the restaurant where Ayu would often be found.

In a photograph taken by the newspaper, religious artwork hung high on the walls of the restaurant.

The small building with green walls could have easily been mistaken for a home with the sight of several personal items and furniture like a sofa.

Che Abdul Karim, a religious leader living in Kuala Betis, Kelantan, had claimed that his intentions for marrying Ayu were noble, adding that it was to give her a good life and a way out of poverty.

In the report, Ayu’s home was photographed as a small wooden shack in Gua Musang, Kelantan, with several pieces of clothing hanging against a wall on a line tied from one end to another.

The only evidence of luxury was the presence of a television satellite dish attached to the house.

Kuala Betis mosque imam Sayed Noordin reportedly said that Che Abdul Karim, who attends the mosque for daily prayers, was a good Muslim and that Islamic laws allowed such child marriages as long as the girl has reached puberty and she and her parents agree to the union.

“In Islamic procedure, as long as a bride agrees, her parents agree and the girl has had her menstrual period, then a marriage is OK,” he said.

“Che Karim is a good Muslim, he always comes for prayer, and he is a responsible man.”

Meanwhile, Che Abdul Karim stressed that he would not be intimate with his new wife until she was 16 years old.

“I love her,” he said to the newspaper in a phone interview.