Three Muslim children apply to marry every day, figures show

PARLIAMENT Every day, about three Muslim children apply to the syariah court for permission to get married, statistics show.A whopping 10,240 cases of applications were recorded by the syariah court between the years 2005 and 2015, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rohani Karim said.

This comes after renewed uproar over child marriages, after a man pleaded guilty to raping his 11-year-old sister-in-law and making his 14-year-old wife record the rape on video.

The minister revealed the statistics in a written parliamentary reply to Kashturi Patto (DAP-Batu Kawan) during the final Dewan Rakyat session for 2015, which concluded this month.

Rohani said the number grew from 545 in 2005 to a peak of 1,110 cases in 2012.

There were 827 applications for child marriages recorded by the syariah court between January and October this year.

The minimum age for marriage in Malaysia is 16 for females and 18 for males.

However, Muslims can marry at a younger age with parental and syariah court consent.

Even so, the National Fatwa Council said child marriages can be detrimental to the child's physical and mental well-being.

Child marriages in Malaysia 

5,145

Muslim girls who got married between 2011 to Oct 2015

3

This is an average of three a day. 

Chinese

Indian

Sabah native

Sarawak native

Others

Muslim girls = aged under 18 who apply to syariah court to marry
Non-Muslim girls  = aged 16-18, who register marriage with NRD between 2011-Sept 2015

Source: Women, Family and Community Development Ministry

While child marriages also occur among non-Muslims, the number is significantly lower.

There were an average of 1,029 cases of Muslim child marriages a year between 2011 and 2015.

In contrast, there were 2,104 cases of non-Muslim girls, between the ages of 16 and 18, getting married during the five years between 2011 and September 2015, Rohani said.

This is according to National Registration Department data.

The data does not include those who marry according to Sabah or Sarawak native customary law or Orang Asli customs.

Of the 2,104 girls, Rohani said, about a third married men between the ages of 18 and 21. The rest married men aged older than 21.

The bulk of non-Muslim girls who got married between the ages of 16 and 18 are ethnic Chinese (961 cases), followed by Sarawak natives (680 cases). -Mkini