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THAILAND-MALAYSIA-RELIGION-CHILD-MARRIAGE LEAD
11-year-old Thai bride returns from Malaysia after uproar
BANGKOK, Aug 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An 11-year-old child bride returned to
Thailand this week following widespread outcry over her marriage to a
Malaysian man 30 years her senior, an official told AFP on Saturday.
Malaysian Muslims below the age of 16 are allowed to wed with the
permission of religious courts but news of the union between the girl and the
41-year-old trader went viral on social media, reigniting calls to end child
marriage.
The ceremony took place in June over the border in Thailand’s Muslim-
majority south in Narathiwat province, where the girl returned to Wednesday
in the wake of “immense pressure from Malaysian media”, provincial governor
Suraporn Prommool said.
The 11-year-old, believed to be the trader’s third wife, is undergoing
mental-health counselling because of the intense level of attention, Suraporn
said.
He added that the marriage was not recognised under Buddhist-majority
Thailand’s civil law but that it took place under the auspices of an Islamic
council in Narathiwat with the consent of the girl’s parents.
“We cannot do anything (to annul the marriage) because they married under
the religious law,” he said.
The trader, however, could face six months in jail if it is found that he
did not get permission in Malaysia.
The girl was born in Thailand to parents who labour in Malaysia’s vast
rubber plantations and Suraporn said she doesn’t speak Thai well.
Around 16,000 girls below the age of 15 in multiethnic and predominantly
Muslim Malaysia are already married, according to the most recent statistics.
But Human Rights Watch senior researcher Heather Barr said that taking into
account the number of children married before reaching 18, the figure could
be “much much higher”.
Uproar in Malaysia prompted the head of the Ministry of Women and Family
Development to weigh in on Facebook last month saying the country
“unequivocally” opposes child marriage and is taking steps to raise the
minimum age to 18.
Rights groups are hopeful that the case could shine a spotlight on the
problem but some remain skeptical given parallel religious and civil legal
systems in Malaysia.
“This has been an ongoing debate in Malaysia and there’s no concrete
solution to this thing,” children’s advocate James Nayagam said, adding that
outcry over the 11-year-old’s marriage would be counterbalanced by support in
conservative communities.
“We can reduce the incidences but I don’t think we can eliminate it,” he
said.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1729 hrs