KUALA LUMPUR: Usmanah was 15-years-old when she was married. She was 16 when she had her first child. Now, two years later, she has three children and little time for much else. Her story highlights the growing need for combating child marriage in Malaysia, women's rights activists said on Thursday. “My life is not fun,” Usmanah told Bikyamasr.com. “My parents sold me off to a man when I was just getting to high school because they had nothing else to do and now I have three children and I am only 19-years-old. It is horrible. I wish my life on no woman.” For women's rights groups and activists in Malaysia, Usmanah's situation is a growing concern among the rural and lower class area of the Southeast Asian country after statistics showed child marriage is again growing in the country. In Kedah, statistics from the state Islamic Religious Department show a 35 percent increase in marriage applications involving underaged individuals between 2008 and 2010. The department received 75 marriage applications from underaged individuals in 2008, 99 in 2009 and 101 in 2010. Of the total, 90 percent involved girls under 16. One of the reasons cited by parents for consenting to their underaged daughters to marry was that the girls were “too wild” and beyond their control. They felt that getting them married would be the best solution. Another was for economic relief. The majority of these cases reportedly were from Sik and Baling. “I think this is part of the government's need to introduce more economic assistance packages to our rural areas,” said Penang-based women's rights worker Susanne Lo, who told Bikyamasr.com that she has seen girls pulled from school in order to get married. “People can give all sorts of excuses, but no girl should be married until they have finished high school,” she added. The statistics are worrying as they show child marriage to be a significant problem in Malaysia, said United Nations Population Fund Malaysia (UNFPA) program manager Saira Shameem. Thursday marks the inaugural United Nations International Day of the Girl, with a focus on ending child marriages. UN statistics show that globally, as many as 10 millions girls are forcibly married before they turn 18, amounting to 25,000 girls every day. “In an economically-stable country like Malaysia, where women are educated and employed in high level jobs and where girls make up 60 percent of the students in tertiary education institutions, this should not be happening. “We need to address sexual and reproductive health education for our young. Studies have shown that age-appropriate sex education actually delays sexual debut. Sexual and reproductive health education will also help girls make more informed choices,” said Shameen. For Usmanah, being married has been the worst part of her young life. She said that while she loves her children, her life “is over.” “What else can I do now, but stay at home and care for the children. I wanted to be a journalist or a writer and now I can't because my parents forced me to get married. It shouldn't happen and the government should do more to stop it,” she said. Malaysia's leading women's rights organization Sisters in Islam Executive Director Ratna Osman said in a statement that the country's laws must change, demanding the legal age for marriage for both Muslims and non-Muslims to be 18. “In this day and age, child marriages are just unacceptable. Is this what we want for Malaysia? We want the legal age for both male and female to be 18, and the absolute minimum for Muslim girls to be 16 but with strict conditions. “Among the conditions is that the minor has sufficient maturity to understand the nature and responsibilities of the marriage and that the judge consults respective experts to verify the child's readiness before issuing an approval,” said Osman.
