Native leaders have no issue

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Minimum Marriage Age

KUCHING: In general, ketua kaum and ketua masyarakat are agreeable to 18 as the minimum age of marriage for customary marriage.

Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said her ministry had received a letter from Sarawak Native Customs Council head Datuk Ganie Ugay stating this, after the council had engaged the ketua kaum and ketua masyarakat.

“After this, they will engage various ethnic groups to ensure that this is carried out,” she told a press conference after the One Stop Teenage Pregnancy Committee meeting at the Baitulmakmur Building here, yesterday.

“This is a good start because prior to this, customary marriage was silent on the minimum age of marriage,” she said.

Fatimah (front, third left) in discussion with representatives from the State Health Department and the Royal Malaysia Police, as well as Ministry of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development permanent secretary Dr Saadiah Abdul Samat (second right). Photo courtesy of Ministry of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development)

However, Fatimah said that this might be a challenge to be implemented within the Penan groups, which are nomadic or semi-nomadic.

According to her, cases of underage marriage under Syariah law had decreased from 127 in 2017 to 107 this year as at October.

She added that underage marriage under civil law had also shown a similar decline but underage marriage under customary law had increased from 384 in 2017 to 452 this year as at October.

“Moving forward, we suggest to refine the standard operating procedure (SOP) for non-Islamic special marriage requests which require the consent of the Resident,” she said.

Fatimah also said that for civil marriage, there were no issues and the minimum age was set at 18.

“If there are certain situations such as those under 18 who fall pregnant before marriage, they have to get permission from the Chief Minister via the Resident of their respective divisions,” she said, adding that there were SOPs that needed to be followed.

Meanwhile, she said that for Syariah marriages, the minimum age for boys was 18 while it was 16 for girls.

“If it involves underage teenagers, they have to get permission from the Syariah Court before they can proceed and they also have very strict SOPs which have to be complied with,” she said.

Fatimah reiterated that Sarawak has three marriage-related legal systems, namely civil, Syariah and customary laws.