In December last year, Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu revealed in Parliament that 445 schoolchildren in Malaysia dropped out of school in 2020 just to get married. Out of the total, 411 were female while 34 were male. Read that again. 445 children in Malaysia have been denied their childhood and forced to abandon their education in 2020 alone just because the archaic practice of underage marriage is still somehow allowed by our legal system.
Worse, the mentioned statistic barely scratches the surface of an appalling problem in Malaysian society that up until today, is yet to be properly addressed by those in power. In another Dewan Rakyat sitting on 4 December 2020, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry revealed that 543 child marriages were recorded within the first 9 months of 2020, a chaotic period in our nation’s history with the initial spread of Covid-19. Despite social activities being almost non-existent during that period with the implementation of movement restrictions, Malaysians still somehow engaged in the activity of underage marriages.
In the same Dewan Rakyat sitting in December 2020, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development Ministry appeared to allude to possible gaps and inconsistencies in the official child marriage statistics in our country. The latest and most accurate data available for marriages under the age of 18 in our country is only from the year 2018 which is based on statistics from the Department of Statistics Malaysia. Throughout 2018, a whopping 1,856 underage marriages were recorded in our country, which saw a slight increase from the year before which saw 1,845 underage marriages being recorded.
Undoubtedly, child marriage is a dire global issue that seriously needs to be addressed and curbed properly. The United Nations asserted that more than 140 million girls became unwilling brides between 2011 and 2020. That’s approximately 39,000 child brides every single day! Appalling.
That is why almost all countries in the world have pushed for a review of their existing laws which allowed for minors to get married. One country which has banned underage marriages altogether in 2020 may surprise you.
In a historic move initiated by its ministry of justice, Saudi Arabia prohibits anyone under the age of 18 in the country to enter into marriage, garnering universal praise from the global community. Previously a widespread practice within the Middle-Eastern country, the prohibition of underage marriage was part of a series of reforms by the kingdom to improve the rights of Saudi women and children.
Given the civil rights progress of what the global world traditionally see to be an ultra-conservative country then begs the question, how on earth did Saudi Arabia beat us into ending the practice of child marriage?
How can an ultra-conservative country that didn’t even allow women to drive up until 3 years ago now safeguard the rights of women and children better than a supposedly secular country that is Malaysia?
Surely, if Saudi Arabia could progress its civil rights and allow for the prohibition of underage marriages, we can do the same?
Jamie is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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