Early Marriage Should Be Discouraged Among Children

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) -- Early marriages among children are not encouraged in this country as they will only affect their health and psychological development, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rohani Abdul Karim. She said that society and parents should be aware about the state of mental and physical preparedness when there was such a request from their child to get married early. "Awareness on sexual abstinence and mechanism to delay marriage until a child is fully prepared should be in place. "Our girls and boys should be taught about responsibility when entering marriage at an early stage by sharing necessary preparations to get into marriage," she said at the launching of Girls’ Voices: Speaking Out Against Child Marriage Exhibition, here Thursday. Rohani said that a marriage had a lot more elements such as mutual responsibility and financial stability to make it into a beautiful union. Rohani said one should not see the delay as a negative call especially when it came to building a family, but an assurance that the children would get married at the appropriate time. "Let’s not tarnish the beautiful institution of marriage, union and a start in building a family," she said. A total of 2,104 marriages had been registered from 2011 until September 2015 involving girls aged 16 but below 18 years of age. Of the total, 680 girls married their partners (males) who were exactly 18 years old but below 21 while the remaining 1,424 girls married their male partners aged above 21. The four-day exhibition at Berjaya Times Square, which starts Thursday, is organised by the Government of Canada and Girls not Brides which is a global partnership of over 550 civil society organisations in more than 70 countries, committed to ending child marriages. Meanwhile, the High Commissioner of Canada in Malaysia Judith St George said the exhibition talks about the untold stories of girls who are standing up their rights and the community members advocating for change alongside them. St George said that though the highest rates of child marriages were found in Africa and South Asia, no country was immune and it included Malaysia and Canada. "It is our hope that it will promote dialogue on child marriage and give voice to the individuals who have been affected," she added. -- BERNAMA