Child marriage ban – consult women's group, DPM urged

Social activist Marina Mahathir has urged Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to consult women’s rights groups as part of the government’s initiative to ban child marriages.

This comes after Wan Azizah, who is also deputy prime minister, was heavily criticised for her recent media statements on child marriage cases in Kelantan.

In light of this, Marina said women’s rights groups would be able to help by providing her with persuasive arguments against the practice.

“I think she needs to be clearer (on her stance against child marriage).

“I think if she could consult all the women’s groups, we have all the arguments against child marriage, whether from a legal, (human) rights and even religious point of view.

“If she consults us, we would be able to give her all the justifications for banning it outright,” Marina said after a book launch at Universiti Malaya today.

Following a revelation that a 15-year-old girl had married a 44-year-old father of two in Kelantan, Wan Azizah said that the girl had consented to the marriage.

She added and that her ministry was constrained by the state’s syariah laws which govern Muslim marriages.

Wan Azizah subsequently came under fire for signalling that paedophiles could “groom” children for sex through marriage.

Yesterday, Wan Azizah clarified that she was simply relaying the findings from a report on the case and she herself remained committed to raising the minimum marriageable age to 18.

She was similarly criticised for not being firm enough against child marriages when news broke of another earlier case, also in Kelantan, in June. - Mkini