Raising the minimum age of marriage to 18 is a must, no excuses



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Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh said the government must raise the basic age of marriage to 18 because the Pakatan Harapan coalition is committed to solving the issue of child marriage in its election campaign

. The Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development told Malay Mail . "The way I see it, we do not have a choice, we are committed to that in our manifesto, we have to work in that direction."

Prior to the 14th general election, Harapan made five commitments To improve the status of women in the country, one of them was to "ensure that the legal system protects the rights and dignity of women", including "the adoption of 39, a law fixing at 18 years the minimum age of marriage "

.

She cited" staggering "statistics on cases of child marriage obtained from the Judicial Department of Sharia and the Department of National Registration, respectively for Muslims and non-Muslims.

Between 2007 and 2017, 10,807 cases of child marriage involving Muslims, Sarawak, Kelantan, and Sabah were first three states where these marriages took place.

During the same period ode, non-Muslims were involved in 4999 child marriages, with the first three states being Sarawak, Johor, and Perak. "We need to know why the numbers are so high"

Yeoh acknowledged that legislation banning child marriage would not fully eradicate the problem.

"Today, if you (must) announce a ban, which I totally support, it does not solve the problem immediately.The problem does not disappear immediately.We must know why the numbers are so high.

"We must prepare the community for such legislation, a ban," said Yeoh, arguing that the public be educated about the harm to the child in such a marriage. Minister, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, said Wednesday that the government would introduce short-term measures to strengthen provisions on child marriage until a complete ban can be implemented.

Recently, Deputy Premier Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was criticized when she said that Putrajaya was powerless to cancel the controversial marriage between an 11-year-old Thai boy and a 41-year-old man. in Kelantan

states allow under-16s to marry with the permission of the court of syariah.

"Legally, this is not valid, but according to Islamic laws, it is," added Yeoh

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