Will Malaysian Underage Marriage Curtail Unwed Pregnancy?

The Islamic Council of the southern Malaysian state of Malacca, where Muslims comprise some 60% of the 28 million population, has announced that it will permit Muslim girls under the age of 16 to marry in an attempt to curb the rise of unwed pregnancies.

According to government figures, the increase in teen pregnancies is up from 107 last year to 111, which hardly seems like enough to prompt such volatile legislation, especially in the light of the predictably angry reaction from activist groups and politicians.
“This is an outrage. We’re turning back the clock when there’s ample evidence to show that we should not condone child marriages… This is a knee-jerk reaction, and such policies should not be carved out by state religious authorities but the federal Ministries of Women, Education, and Health,” said Ivy Josiah, executive director of Women’s Aid Organization.
Muslims living in Malacca fall under the jurisdiction of Islamic family and criminal laws that are run by each of the country’s 13 separate states, while federal civil laws apply to non-Muslims.
Mohammad Ali Rustam, the chief minister of Malacca, has stipulated that permission to wed in these instances will only be viable if the families of the teenagers and the Islamic courts concur.
“For the state government, this is the best step to deal with the problem of abandoned babies and unwed pregnancies,” said Rustam.
The Malaysian state of Malacca may be reactionary to say the very least, but no one can deny that its leaders are trying to address the issue in their own particular way. The government has plans to open a special school for unwed pregnant Muslim girls and set up a “baby hatch” where unwanted children can be left anonymously instead of being abandoned.

Source :  http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/08/19/malaysian-underage-marriage-curtail-unwed-pregnancy/