JULY 20 — The report on the declining number of Muslim child marriages is pleasing. However, the report at the same time also illustrates the somewhat slanted news coverage of child marriages in Malaysia.

This is particularly so when a working paper prepared for UNICEF Malaysia by Prof Dato’ Noor Aziah Mohd Awal and Mohd Al Adib Samuri finds little, if not none, news coverage.

The working paper is an enlightening read. Suffice here to refer to the executive summary where the authors wrote:

“Existing evidence … indicates that child marriage is practised in Muslim, non-Muslim, indigenous and refugee communities in Malaysia. For example, available data shows that there were some 15,000 girls who were married before the age of 15 as of October 2010. The researchers also obtained data that showed there were 5,215 cases of married non-Muslim female children (16 to 18 years old) from 2005 to October 2015. As for Muslims, the Department of Syariah Judiciary, Malaysia recorded 6,584 cases of marriage among Muslim children from 2011 to October 2016. According to the 2010 Orang Asli Census, there were 196 married Orang Asli children out of 63,883 married couples in that community in that year.”

The authors then continued:

“Several legal and policy bottlenecks hinder efforts to curb child marriage in the country. Malaysia’s complex legal system — which encompasses Shariah, civil and customary law — makes it difficult to define ‘child’ in the context of child marriage. For example, civil law stipulates that the legal age of marriage for non-Muslims is 18 (although females aged 16 to 18 may marry with the consent of their state Chief Minister or Menteri Besar).”

“Muslim law, however, which governs Malaysia’s Muslim-majority population, provides that while girls may marry at 16 and boys at 18, the Shariah Court may grant permission to marry below those ages (i.e. below 16 for girls and below 18 for boys).”

“The establishment of a clear minimum age for marriage at 18 in line with international standards that applies to all existing legal frameworks is therefore a key first step to ending child marriage in Malaysia.”

Let’s be forthright. In Malaysia, child marriages are and continue to be permitted under both the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act (LRA) for non-Muslims and the Islamic Family Law Enactments of the States for Muslims.

If setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 years for men and women is a key first step to ending child marriage in Malaysia, then the legal frameworks for the civil, Muslim and native customary law marriages have to be reformed, without exception.

For a start, amend section 10 of LRA to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 for both men and women. It is within the Federal Government power to do that.

If the Federal Government is slow to amend the legislation, perhaps a private member’s Bill may be initiated by a Member of Parliament who is among strong advocates of ending child marriages in Malaysia.

*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.