Small Talk
The Body Shop collaborated with Women’s Aid Organisation, Sisters in Islam and the Association of W omen Lawyers in a campaign to end child marriage
Kar Fei Cheah of Mindvalley and Life Redesigned Co talks about his career and what it means for him to make an impact in the lives of others
In a bid to show support to end child marriage, members of the public and students turned up for a rally that was jointly organised by The Body Shop, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), Sisters In Islam (SIS), and the Association of Women Lawyers (AWL). The event also marked the launch of the group’s petition campaign to urge the government to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 years. Managing director of The Body Shop Malaysia, Datin Mina Cheah-foong said, “In the long-term, beyond legal reform, we know that to end child marriage, we need to change public perception, to achieve gender sensitisation, to institute sex education and to empower our youth, both boys and girls, to speak out for their rights.” “The fact that child marriage is rampant here means that we’re failing our children,” says Meera Samanther, WAO vice-president, before adding, “This is not an issue for one community, race or religion to deal with. To truly tackle this issue and end child marriage, we must stand together to safeguard the childhoods of all children in Malaysia.” The Body Shop has long been involved in campaigning for human rights—especially women’s and children’s. Since 2000, they have worked with WAO to raise awareness and successfully campaigned for law reform on Violence Against Women. Then, 2009 to 2011 saw them campaigning on the issue of child sex trafficking and called on governments around the world to ratify the United Nations Convention on Human Trafficking. Recently, they have conceptualised the #bemorethanbeautiful campaign, to debunk the stereotypes of beauty, as well as raise awareness among society to celebrate the right types of role models, especially so for the younger women. The petition to end child marriage started on August 1 with 20,000 signatures, and ended on September 30. It will then be handed to the Minister of Women and Family Development, plus Minister of Religion and Minister of Law.