Member of Parliament for Tasek Gelugor, Shabudin Yahya, raised some eyebrows when he concluded that “marriage between a rape victim and the rapist was a possible remedy for social problems” and further reiterated that “maybe with the marriage, (the man) can lead a different life that is better. And the wife who was raped, if she can get married she will not go through an uncertain future.” Such a suggestion is morally unethical and to be frank, does not sit well with sound minded members of our society.
For the past several years, Malaysians have heard this argument surface time and again – child marriages and rape. While rape is indeed a crime, Malaysia does not have laws to prevent rape victims from marrying their attackers. Furthermore, in Malaysia, while, the legal minimum age for marriage under civil law for both genders is 18, girls can marry at 16 with permission of their state’s chief minister. However, under Islamic law the minimum age of marriage for girls is 16 and permits marriages for those below 15 years old with the permission of the Syriah court.
In general, child marriages are largely driven by tradition and culture but in Malaysia, it is thinly veiled as a religious matter. A report published revealed that in 2015 alone, there were roughly 15,000 girls below 15 who were married. Reliable statistics on child marriages are difficult to compile – many are undocumented, hence, the exact numbers are assumed to be higher.
According to the United Nations, more than 700 million women worldwide were married before their 18th birthday and more than one in three (about 250 million) married before turning 15; entering such a union only presents severe psychological and emotional damages.
Early marriages will deprive them of their right to education and hamper all possibilities of economic independence, making it more difficult to escape from an unwanted marriage. Furthermore, child marriages are also more likely to become violent because the relationship is based overpowering one spouse over the other.
So contrary to what some federal lawmakers may want you believe, nothing good will ever come out from child marriages and more so, marrying one’s rapist.
This is exactly what half-baked politicians like Shabudin Yahya (whose sensitivity chip is clearly missing) will try to propagate, sanction and sell.
Survivors of rape are often left with devastating experiences that will most likely last a lifetime, unless given the right psychiatric treatment. Marrying one’s rapist will only present a permanent nightmare, one that will only cause pain, stress and other unspeakable experiences with almost no end in sight.
Such ideologies have absolutely no place in a modern country like Malaysia and especially one that is multi-cultural and multi-religious. Child marriages entrap women and young girls in relationships that deprive them of their basic human rights, furthermore, the proposal to have them marry off their attackers constitutes to a violation of human rights and common decency.
A child wife could be abused beyond recovery and because of the extreme social dangers that lay ahead; the Malaysian government and the federal lawmakers must do more to protect our women and girls from child marriages and rape.