48 underage couples apply to get married in Selangor

SHAH ALAM: Forty-eight underage Muslim couples requested to be married in Selangor during the first 10 months of this year.

Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said out of the total, only 34 applications were approved.

These figures were only for Muslim couples as registration of non-Muslim marriages comes under the purview of the National Registration Department, he said at the state assembly sitting here today.

Amirudin (PKR-Sungai Tua) said this when responding to a question from Elizabeth Wong (PKR-Bukit Lanjan) who wanted to know the number of applications and approvals for underage marriages involving Muslim couples since the beginning of the year.

He also said the state had not received any applications for underage marriage involving Muslims after amendments to the Islamic Family Enactment (State of Selangor) Enactment 2003 (Amendment 2018) were passed.

“We are still using the previous enactment as the new law will only come into effect from January 2019,” he said.

On Sept 5, the Selangor assembly passed the amendment which, among others, increases the minimum marriage age limit for Muslims from 16 to 18.

Amirudin, when presenting the motion, had said that under the amendment, those under the age of 18 had to obtain permission from a shariah court judge in Selangor.

Prior to the amendment, Section 8 of the Islamic Family Enactment (State of Selangor) 2003 stipulated that the minimum age of marriage for Muslim men was 18 and for Muslim women 16.

Selangor was the first state to amend the law regarding the minimum age limit of Muslim marriages, following the controversy sparked by an 11-year-old girl’s marriage to a 41-year-old man in southern Thailand earlier this year. - FMT