Earlier this week, the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development of Malaysia, Rina Harun has said that the government currently has no plans to ban child marriage.
Following that, Terengganu State Exco, Mohd Nor Hamzah said the state will not stop teenage couples from getting married, despite the divorce rates being high among the group.
“Love is like the ocean. It’s not easy to stop when the waves hit. The prophets also said that if the youth can get married, then do so as it can lower their gaze,” Nor said.
He then said that if the youth cannot afford to get married at a young age, then they are encouraged to fast.
Nor pointed out that not all marriages among the group last long. In fact, a total of 1,290 divorces were recorded last year in the state alone. According to him, 685 cases of divorce were caused by irresponsibilities and lack of proper education on Islamic marriage.
Among the other factors of divorce include, communication issues (187 cases), third-party interference (174 cases), social cases (115 cases), economical reasons (83 cases), sexual reasons (14 cases) and culture and career (4 respectively).
Meanwhile, Nor said the state government will work to educate teenage couples through religious programmes. The 2 programmes which will be introduced include 2 phases – pre-marriage and post-marriage.
“Through these programmes, all bride and groom-to-be will be exposed towards the marriage life in advance which will decrease the problems that may lead to divorce,” Nor said.
His statement did not go well with netizens and most think that children and teenagers should be protected at all cost as the time has yet to come for them to tie the knot.
“Stop using religion, please. Children needs education. It it also to protect them from sexual predators. Anak muda in this context, in this era may means those above 18yrs old or so.. protect our children. Use religion to who does harm to rakyat, those who took bribes n do crimes.” a netizen commented.
“Who’s going to define whether it’s “true love” as overwhelming as the big waves of Terengganu beaches or plain pedophilia? It’s already a big problem when people misuse their positions of authority on matters that they lack proper knowledge of.” another netizen said.
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