Former mufti: Zina no reason for allowing child marriage

Judges should not approve an application by a child to marry, simply because the child has had sex, said a former mufti.

Sex between an adult and a girl who has not yet attained the age of consent of 16, is legally defined as statutory rape.

Former Terengganu mufti Ismail Yahya said under Islamic law, the man in such a situation should be stoned to death if he was married to someone else, instead of allowed to marry the child.

"Having commited (statutory) rape should not be an excuse or a reason for the syariah judge to approve the marriage.

"In Islam, when a married man has illicit sex (sex outside of marriage), they have committed zina, and the punishment is death by stoning," Ismail said at a forum on child marriage in Kuala Lumpur today.

Syariah enactments in Malaysia states that girls under the age of 16 must receive approval from syariah court if they want to get married.

Ismail - who was also former chief syariah judge of Terengganu - said marriages should be approved based on whether it will benefit the girl, and whether the proposed husband can care for her.

His comments come a month after BN Tasek Gelugor MP Shabudin Yahaya said that while rape is a crime - marriage could be a social remedy for women who were raped and a way for the man to repent.

Following an outcry, he defended himself by saying the remarks were made in the context of statutory rape where the sex happens within a consensual relationship between a teenager and an adult.

Shabudin had also opposed a ban on child marriages, saying underaged girls with "wild" lifestyles had better lives after marriage.

Ismail at the forum in Kuala Lumpur, said in most cases, applications for child marriages were made after a girl has had intercourse (terlanjur).

He also said that some families would try to pressure syariah judges into approving the marriages, by dangling the burden of sin over the judges' heads.

"They would ask, 'Who would bear this sin (of extramarital sex)? Would the judge bear it?'," Ismail said.

However he said, under Islam, those who have attained physical, mental and emotional maturity bear their own sins, not anyone else.

Conflicting laws

Ismail was a panelist at a forum organised by The G Blog titled "Child Marriage: Setting Our Children Up To Fail"

Other panelists included DAP Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, and child rights activist Hartini Zainudin.

During the forum, Teo had questioned why child marriages were allowed, as well as conflicting laws on sexual relations with minors.

She said under the penal code, the age of consent was 16, but the newly-introduced Sexual Offences Against Children Act criminalises any sort of sexual relations with those under 18.

"And yet we still allow child marriages," Teo lamented.

Teo had previously fought to have child marriages banned under the Sexual Offences Against Chidren Act, but her motion to do so was defeated in the Dewan Rakyat.- Mkini