5.1 Child marriage Malaysia’s complex legal system renders it difficult to define ‘child’ for the purposes of child marriage. Civil law permits marriage for non-Muslims from the age of 18 years, although girls may marry from the age of 16 years where a license has been granted by the Chief Minister.133 Under customary law, there is no minimum age for marriage, although those under the age of 18 require parental consent. Under Islamic law, Muslim girls may marry unconditionally when they reach the age of 16 and boys may marry when they reach 18 years.134 Children under this age may, however, get married with permission of the Syariah Court (which appears to be withheld only in a small number of cases135); there is thus no absolute minimum age. Child marriage can place adolescents at significant risk of psychological, physical (often leading to lifelong health problems) and sexual harm. Early pregnancy, which
KEY POINTS often either precipitates or results from child marriage can cause physical and mental harm to adolescent girls. Data on child marriage prevalence in Malaysia are incomplete, given the lack of household survey data on child marriage. According to UNICEF’s 2017 State of the World’s Children data set, five per cent of males and six per cent of females aged 15-19 were married at the time the data was collected (during a period of 2011-2016). According to administrative data from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD), the number of applications received for marriages in which at least one party was under 18, between 2008 to June 2018 are as set out in Figure 6 (though it is noted that applications for child marriage does not indicate overall prevalence of child marriages, as it does not include child marriages which take place informally – i.e. without an application – or child marriages under customary laws in Sabah):
FIGURE 6: Number of child marriage applications (2008 – June/September 2018)136
133 134 135 136
Section 10, Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976. Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 and Enactment of Islamic Family Law in states. UNICEF, A Study on Child Marriage in Malaysia, 2018. Noor Aziah Mohd Awal & Al Adib Samuri, UNICEF MALAYSIA, p. 3. Malaysian House of Representatives, Answer to Question 45 by Dato’ Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Dr. Wan Ismail, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Women, Family and Community Development in 14th Parliament session, 15 October 2018. 137 These figures includes applications in relation to both the male and female party to the marriage.
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