In Malaysia, why is child sex bad but child marriage OK?
A presumption that voters are divided along religious lines during an election year is turning child welfare into a political football
“When she came to me, she was 13, had already delivered her first child, and the boy – then 15 – had already divorced her and run off,” said child rights activist Dr Hartini Zainudin, recalling her first case of teen marriage in Malaysia.
“Her mother was dead and her father, a security guard, had severe gout. The father would come to me to ask for help to get milk powder and diapers. Eventually I sat the girl down and explained to her that the welfare of her child was her responsibility. She had to either go back to school or find a job, or I’d have to ask the welfare department to step in.”
“Sweetheart” cases – so called because of the perceived romantic element – are rampant in Malaysia, often ending in divorce. In many cases it’s a cruel misnomer – marriages are often concluded to resolve criminal liability, to escape rape charges or penalties for premarital sex. In 2015, the health minister said an average of 18,000 teens get pregnant annually, a quarter of them out of wedlock.
According to government statistics, between 2010 and 2015, there were 6,264 applications for child marriage from Muslims – the number of approved applications is unknown – and 2,725 non-Muslim teenage girls who got married.
The age of consent for sex in Malaysia is 16. Under civil law, the minimum age of marriage is 18 with parental consent (21 without), but girls may be married between the ages of 16 to 18 with the consent of a state’s chief minister.