A TikTok video in which a man said he had recently married a 15-year-old girl has drawn a backlash online, with many questioning whether a child that age can truly agree to marriage, and some warning that children may be groomed or exploited.
Suhakam’s children’s commissioner, Al Adib Samuri, said a parent’s blessing does not mean a child understands what marriage involves. In remarks reported this week, he said children under 18 are easily swayed by family pressure, by fear or shame, or by the promise of an easier life, and that a girl married to a much older man finds it harder to speak up.
He cited a 2014 finding by the National Fatwa Council that most child marriages in Malaysia were not in the children’s interests and were often arranged to cover a family’s “shame”. In some cases, he said, marriage was used to hide sexual offences against children.
Adib, who lectures at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Faculty of Islamic Studies, urged Malaysia to follow countries such as Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, which set the minimum age at 18 or 19 but let the courts allow exceptions in limited cases. Malaysia could do the same, he said, with the syariah courts keeping that discretion.
The law behind it
Malaysia has two sets of marriage laws. For non-Muslims, the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 makes a marriage void if either party is under 18. The only exception is a girl who has turned 16, who may marry with a licence granted by the Chief Minister or Menteri Besar.
For Muslims, the minimum age is set by each state’s Islamic family law, because Islamic family law is a state matter under the Federal Constitution. In the Federal Territories, the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 sets the age at 18 for men and 16 for women, and anyone younger needs a Syariah judge’s written permission. A single national minimum age for Muslims would therefore need every state to amend its own law.
Marriage also matters under criminal law. Sex with a girl under 16 is rape under the Penal Code even if she consents, but the Code excludes intercourse within a marriage that is valid in law. Child-rights advocates say this is why marriage can be used to shield offenders. Grooming a child for sexual purposes is a separate offence under the Sexual Offences against Children Act 2017.