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- Dubai 04:32 05:49 12:21 15:48 18:47 20:04
The marriage of a 14-year-old Muslim girl in a Malaysian mass wedding triggered calls Monday for reform, and restraint by religious courts empowered to approve underage unions.
Schoolgirl Siti Maryam Mahmod wed 23-year-old schoolteacher Abdul Manan Othman on Saturday in a celebration at a major mosque, after being given permission in a Sharia court.
Activist group Sisters in Islam (SIS) condemned the marriage and said that some 16,000 Malaysian girls aged below 15 were married, citing figures released by a senior government official.
"No marriage of a minor child can be deemed acceptable," spokeswoman Yasmin Masidi said in a statement.
"We deplore statements by... government officials and religious authorities giving tacit approval to the practice or passing off responsibility to the Sharia Court to determine its 'permissibility'."
Malaysian Muslims below the age of 16 who want to get married must obtain the permission of the religious courts to do so.
Muslim Malays make up about 60 per cent of the country's 28 million population and on certain issues, including family law, they are subject to Islamic justice which operates in parallel with the civil legal system.
Women, Family and Community Development minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil also raised concern over the practice, which she said the government did not condone.
"As far as I know, she's got the consent of the (Sharia) court. But I implore the courts to be cautious," she said of Siti Maryan's marriage, according to the Star daily.
"As far as the government is concerned, a wedding does not make a marriage."
Ivy Josiah, executive director of leading activist group Women's Aid Organisation, has said that laws which allow underage marriage must be repealed by Malaysia, a conservative and mainly Muslim country.
"We need to remedy the flaws in the law. There are exceptions in the law. These exceptions should be removed. The government can no longer turn a blind eye," Josiah told AFP.
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