Muslim group tells PAS-led states to tow federal line on underage marriage

Shariah courts in Kelantan have approved 10 underage marriages between January 2018 and January 2019.

PETALING JAYA: Muslim women empowerment group Sisters In Islam (SIS) has criticised state governments who snub Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s call to raise the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 years.

SIS took aim at the PAS-led Kelantan and Terengganu state governments, following a revelation that shariah courts in Kelantan had approved 10 underage marriages between January 2018 and January 2019

“When averaged, this indicates that at least one underaged marriage took place almost every month in the state.

“We are disappointed that Kelantan and Terengganu have opted to retain child marriage in the states, with Kelantan citing last November that the practice is regarded as a ‘necessity’ in the state,” it said.

Underage marriages have been widely debated in the media since June last year after a 41-year-old Kelantan man took an 11-year-old girl as his bride.

The following month, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the government would amend the laws to raise the age that girls could marry from 16 to 18 years.

Mahathir had reportedly urged state governments during a meeting of menteris besar and chief ministers in October to raise the legal minimum age for marriage to 18 years for both Muslims and non-Muslims.

SIS said while Penang, Selangor and Sabah had taken steps towards implementing the directive, there was still a long way to go.

“Federal and state governments and elected representatives including MPs and state assemblymen have the responsibility to protect the most vulnerable amongst us, including children,” it said.

In early October, Selangor’s Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah decreed that the marriageable age for Muslim males and females in the state be raised from 16 to 18 years.

He said state authorities would review the relevant laws and make the amendments where needed. - FMT