Social activist stops marriage of child bride in Prai

A social activist in Penang has called on the government to speed up the process to ban child marriages, claiming he stopped one in Prai on Wednesday.

On Feb 6, Stanley Sudhagaran received a tip-off that an 11-year-old female child was about to be married off by her parents to a 21-year-old man at midnight.

According to Stanley, the marriage was to take place in Prai in a family home, conducted by an unauthorised religious leader from the Rohinga community.

"I immediately decided to intervene and made a police report in Prai.

"While I must acknowledge that the police were very helpful in assisting me in trying to stop the marriage, however, their power seems to be limited due to the laws in this country,"Stanley told Malaysiakini.

"The investigating officer of the case informed me that they had no power to stop the marriage if the family had consented.

"However, the police tried hard to contact the state religious authority to intervene as they had the power to do so, taking into account that this marriage was not approved by the state religious authority and the victim is a Muslim Rohinga," he added.

"Sadly, the police failed to get in touch with the state religious authority as it was already around 9pm and it was a public holiday."

Stanley said the police then agreed to accompany him to the venue and talk to the parents.

Big feast

Upon arriving at the venue, he was shocked to see a big feast being prepared, with many guests, all from the Rohinga community.

"I met the father of the child and told him that he would be getting into trouble if he proceeded with the marriage.

"I told him that it was illegal for a child under the age of 16 to get married in Malaysia," Stanley said.

"I also met the bridegroom-to-be and informed him that he could be committing statutory rape if he proceeded with the marriage.

"The religious authority would also take action as they have not sanctioned the wedding."

Stanley said after almost three hours of discussion with the family, the father finally agreed to call off the wedding.

"He also agreed to send the child to continue her education in our refugee school as I had offered to take her in," Stanley added.

"This story had a happy ending. However, sadly, there are many incidents such as these involving the Rohinga community where their cases go unreported.

"This is also not the first time I have come across such an incident, " Stanley said.

" Just a few months ago, we managed to stop another wedding with the help and intervention of UNHCR involving a 12-year-old kid with a 30-year-old man," he claimed.

Stanley is the co-founder and one of the directors of the LifeBridge Learning Centre, a school which provides free education to refugees in Penang.

He is also the northern region coordinator for the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Centre), but said he is handling this issue in his personal capacity.

Stanley called on parliamentarians to urgently enact laws that would ban child marriages in Malaysia.

He said it is time the Pakatan Harapan government seriously started rolling out policies to protect every refugee in the country.

In August last year, Penang has instructed its state legal adviser to look into laws to increase the age of consent for child marriages.

However, many are disappointed with the federal government for its delay in tackling the issue. - Mkini

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