Fourteen-Year-Old Girl Marries Man in Malaysia in Latest Child Bride Case Under Sharia

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, families are celebrating the marriage of a young couple. Well, one of the couple is young by any measure. A 14-year-old girl, Siti Maryam Mahmod, has been married to a 23-year-old man in what we would classified as a case of obvious pedophilia in the United States. However, in Malaysia, intimate relations with a 14-year-old girl is called marriage rather than pedophilia.

This is of course only the latest such marriage under Sharia law involving a child bride. Malaysia allows such marriages for Muslims but not non-Muslims. Non-Muslim females must be at least 16 and non-Muslim males must be 18 to marry.

All that is required for Muslim girls is the consent of the family, which is easy given that most of these marriages are arranged and involve the payment of dowry to the family.

Siti Maryam Mahmod is quoted as saying “It has been hard trying to juggle two roles — as a student and a wife — but I am taking it in my stride.” “School” would be middle school in the United States.

Source: Times

Jonathan Turley