Working to end child marriage in Malaysia

Faye Lee, an LWF delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women, shares her hopes for an end to this inhumane practice

Child marriage has long been one of the central focuses of gender justice work in Malaysia. I first heard about it around the time I was 13, during my first form in secondary school when my mother enrolled me in the Girl Guides Association in Kuala Lumpur. It was during a march that I saw a few girls holding picket signs saying, “End Child Marriage in Malaysia” and “I am a child not a bride.” That made me inquisitive, and I learnt more about the practice and laws in my country. I also found out how organizations like the Girl Guides Association reaches out to young girls of my age around the country, not only to spread awareness, but also to create a community where girls can develop their skills, knowledge and values, at no cost, outside of a school setting.

Since then, child marriage has been a huge part of my advocacy for gender justice, and I discovered it falls under the 12 Critical Areas of Concern in the Beijing Declaration. While Malaysia has made much progress in women and children’s rights, child marriage has yet to be unequivocally banned by law. In 2022, the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act was passed to establish a Tribunal for those who have been sexually harassed to bring their cases. Within the same year, however, the federal government announced that there were no plans to ban child marriage due to opposition from more than half of all the states in the country.

Currently, child marriage cases in Malaysia (those that are recorded) average around 1.500 per year, mostly in the rural states and communities. In 2018, the youngest recorded case of child marriage was of an 11-year-old girl to a 41-year-old man, which sparked further demands from the public to hasten progress on a nationwide ban on child marriages.

Raising awareness, pushing for policy change

This opposition seems almost irrational to most, but many of the leaders opposing the ban view child marriage as a solution rather than a crime. Child marriage, to its supporters, is a means to an end – a fix for young girls and their households that are in poverty and who also lack access to education, specifically sexual and reproductive health education. To others, it’s viewed as a way to “protect” young girls from premarital sex, as it isn’t uncommon for young girls to be wedded off to their rapists. This abhorrent custom is regarded as a means to protect a young girl’s dignity after the assault.

Today, there are many local women’s rights grassroots organizations actively working towards ending child marriage through outreach, awareness raising, extracurricular engagement in schools, policymaking and more. As the issue of child marriage touches on social and cultural practices, a lot of organizations, including some churches, have tiptoed around it, just citing the impacts of child marriage on young girls without mentioning the cultural influences that uphold the practice.

My hope, and that of many Malaysians, is for a nationwide ban on child marriage, but also for the government to address the socioeconomic challenges within families of the lowest household incomes that see child marriage as a solution for themselves in times of need. This would mean channeling more financial support for young girls to complete at least their secondary education and ensuring there won’t be censorship around sexual and reproductive health education in public schools.

Last but not least, I would like to see active outreach and campaigning against child marriage in the rural states and communities in Malaysia, to educate adults and families on the dangers of child marriage, alongside more viable and humane solutions they can access to address their financial needs. I believe that every young girl in Malaysia deserves the right to continue and complete her education as she sees fit and make her own decision about marriage from the age of consent onwards.