The Sabah Women’s Advisory Council (MPWS) said Kota Marudu and Kudat were among districts in Sabah where underage marriages were rampant.
“These are marriages involving many girls under 16 that have been registered. A lot more may not have been registered there and in other districts,” said MPWS chairman Tarsiah TZ Taman.
Speaking to FMT after a seminar for students and parents on child marriages here today, Tarsiah said many such marriages went through village ceremonies and were not registered.
She said underage marriages could also be linked to hardcore poverty in the two districts, but said there was no study to support the claim.
“MPWS applauds the proposal to increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 (at the federal level).
“MPWS insists that there is an alarming increase in young marriages in Sabah. We will conduct awareness and advocacy campaigns to address this issue,” Tarsiah said.
State Law and Native Affairs Minister Aidi Moktar recently said child marriages were not a major issue in Sabah, adding that the state government was not planning to raise the minimum age for marriage despite recent calls to ban underage marriages.
Meanwhile, Sabah Women’s Affairs Department (Jhewa) director Masnah Matsalleh said she supported the call to raise the minimum age of marriage.
Tarsiah said girls should at least finish their secondary education before deciding if they wanted to marry.
Today’s seminar was the first in a series of statewide tours to raise awareness among students, parents and community leaders on the risks and negative effects of early marriage.
Sabah Women’s Action-Resource Group (Sawo) urged the state to reconsider its stand not to raise the minimum age limit for now.
Sawo executive committee member Easwary Hari Ramulu said the issue of child marriages was a matter of public interest.
“We urge the state government to follow the federal government’s direction in this issue, which is to raise the minimum age for marriage for everyone to 18.
“There is nothing positive about marrying a child off.”
Easwary referred to a case involving a 40-year-old man who applied to marry a 12-year-old at the Kota Kinabalu Shariah Court in 2013.
“We would like to highlight the speed at which this was approved. At that time, he was the alleged rapist of his child bride, aged 12.
“He has since been found guilty of that rape and sentenced. He is still, to the best of our knowledge, married to that girl, who is his second wife,” she said.
The father of four was convicted of statutory rape and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and two strokes of the cane.
Easwary said children should not be seen as commodities to be traded by their parents.
She agreed that poverty played a role in perpetuating underage marriages.
“Education is the only gateway in which one can break the vicious cycle of poverty,” she said.