Breaking the Chains: Stop normalising child marriages

While there has been a global decline in child marriages in recent years, this deeply ingrained and widespread practice continues to persist, flagrantly violating human rights and standing as a significant moral blight, tarnishing the very societal fabric.

Despite global attempts to eradicate this practice, millions of young girls find themselves thrown into child marriages, perhaps willingly or unwillingly, often with significantly older spouses.

As reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), approximately 640 million girls and women currently alive experienced childhood marriage, with one in five young women aged 20 to 24 married as children, compared to nearly one in four a decade ago globally.

According to former deputy minister of the Women, Family and Community Development (Ministry MWFCD) Hannah Yeoh, from 2007 until 2017, there were 14,999 cases of child marriages, with 10,000 occurring within the Malay-Muslim community. In addition, in 2020 it was reported that 445 students dropped out of secondary school due to marriage.

As reported, approximately 1,500 children were married off each year (between 2007 to 2019) and 90 per cent of them were girls. A recent parliament session highlighted a positive decline in child marriages, with a 19 per cent decrease reported—from 1,354 cases in 2020 to 1,086 cases in 2021.

To date, accurate statistics on child marriages in Malaysia remain elusive due to the absence of a centralised database, exacerbated by the sensitivity of the topic and the prevalence of undocumented cases. A meta-analytical study by Kohno et al. (2020) found evidence that among the major reasons for child marriages are poverty, human insecurity, family conflicts, inadequate legal protection for victims, victims lack of knowledge on child marriage, cultural and religious values, influence of the patriarchal influence, etc.

Consistently, data collected by the Shariah Judiciary Malaysia Department (JKSM) in 2018 indicates, there was a high prevalence of child marriages in Sarawak (974 cases), Kelantan (877 cases) and Sabah (848 cases). The total ban on child marriages is contested, particularly in these states that also persistently experience high levels of poverty.

Child marriage often occurs covertly, leaving the child as a silent victim. Public awareness about this phenomenon only rises when the media spotlights specific incidents. The following are a few instances of the tabloid-worthy mentions of child marriage in Malaysia: