Pic from The Star Online
OCTOBER 2 — The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) expresses our grave concern at the statement by the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor on the rarity of child marriages in Malaysia to the international audience she was addressing at the Ford Foundation breakfast meeting in New York, as reported in The Star on 1 October 2015.
The statement by Datin Seri Rosmah mentioned that child marriages in Malaysia are rare because of the low poverty rate of 0.6 per cent. Unfortunately, child marriages in Malaysia occur more often than depicted.
In 2010, the Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Heng Seai Kie said that approximately 16,000 girls aged below 15 were married.
Four years later in 2014, Malaysia yet again caused international concern, as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 2014 report recorded that more than 15,000 Malaysian children were married off before the age of 19. Read more