No to marriage below 18 years of age

KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans interviewed on the minimum age for marriage in Sabah agree that 18 should be made the minimum age for marriage in the state.

Those interviewed by The Borneo Post concurred with the opinion of United Nations Children’s Fund ( Unicef) representative to Malaysia Marianne Clark Hattingh who emphasised on the minimum age issue.

Assistant Education and Innovation Minister Jenifer Lasimbang stressed that the international standard for marriage is 18 years old.

She disagreed with the recent comment by Sabah Mufti Datuk Bungsu @ Aziz Jaafar that people should be allowed to get married early and that according to the Syariah law, the minimum age for marriage is 14 for girls and 16 for boys.

“Those below 18 years old are still children,” she said.

Sabah Umno Wanita wing chief Datuk Jainab Ahmad Ayid also disagreed that the under- aged be allowed to marry.

She re-iterated that underage marriages are problems in Sabah and that this issue has been frequently raised by women groups, with some cases even ending up in court.

She stressed that underage marriage is unhealthy and leads to other problems.

“Girls who are 14 years old should be allowed to study. It is still schooling age,” she said.

She added that if the law was amended and people were allowed to marry young (14 years old for girls and 16 years old for boys), the issue of rape would no longer arise.

“It might result in more people being married off in the rural areas without the issue being referred to the court,” she said.

She reminded that this will take away women’s rights and that instead of moving forward, Sabah is moving backwards.

“I support the proposal to fix the minimum age to 18 years old,” she said, referring to the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s consent to the proposal by the Selangor Islamic Religious Council ( Mais) and the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) that the minimum age for marriage for Muslim men and women be changed from 16 to 18 years.

Businesswoman, Eliza Goh also concurred that people below 18 years old should not be allowed to make such a serious decision, particularly since this would have life long impacts.

She was also against the proposal to reduce of age of marriage to 14 years old in Sabah, citing that most girls this age are still deciding on their education and have not tasted the realities of life.

“They haven’t had the opportunity to figure out what they want in life,” she said.

She added that although getting married was the people’s choice, girls should be allowed to be old enough to understand the consequences of their choices.

Borneo Rhino Alliance Executive director Datuk Dr Junaidi Payne meanwhile explained that marrying at 14 was probably acceptable in the past, in simple societies when people had nothing much to do but survive and procreate, and the average life expectancy was perhaps 40 years or so.

“Some people seemingly have not realised that things are extremely different now,” he said.