ELC590

ENGLISH FOR ORAL PRESENTATION

INFORMATIVE SPEECH PORTFOLIO

NAME : NUR NASRIN BINTI ABDUL AZIZ

STUDENT’S ID : 2020455322
GROUP : AP2291B
LECTURER’S NAME : MISS NURAIN JANTAN ANUA JAH
TITLE : CHILD MARRIAGE
Table of Content

No Content Page
1.0 Article 3
1.1 Article 1 3-8
1.2 Article 2 9-12
1.3 Article 3 13-15
2.0 Graph 16
3.0 Outline 17-19
4.0 Presentation Slides 19-21
5.0 Reference List 22

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1.0 Article

There are some articles that have been used as a reference to complete the speech entitled
child marriage. The first article is from The Star. Second article is from The Asean Post,
and lastly from UNICEF MALAYSIA.

1.1 Article 1

Child marriage is no happily-ever-after.

AN estimated 12 million girls are married every year before they reach the age of
18. That is over 32,000 girls a day. Or almost 23 girls every minute who are being
married off too soon.

When a young girl becomes a bride, the consequences are lifelong for the girl, her
children, and for her nation.

The young brides are often isolated, with their freedom curtailed, and they may
feel disempowered and deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education
and safety.

According to international standards, child marriage is defined as any marriage

carried out below the age of 18.

In Malaysia, it is still legal for children below the age of 18 to be married under
Islamic and civil laws.

Although under civil law non-Muslims can only marry from the age of 18, non-
Muslim girls can marry as early as 16, provided they get the permission of the
Chief Minister or Menteri Besar.

For Muslims, the minimum age of marriage is 16 for girls and 18 for boys, but
exceptions can be made for girls or boys to marry at a younger age as long as they
obtain the Syariah courts’ consent.

In Malaysia, child marriage is still very much prevalent, say civil society
organisations.

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 Based on 2000 Malaysian Census data, there were 6,800 girls and 4,600 boys
under the age of 15 who were married.

More recently, the Syariah Judiciary Department revealed that a total of 10,240
child marriages among Muslims were recorded from 2005 to 2015.

That translates to an average of 1,024 Muslim children getting married every year.

For non-Muslims, the National Registration Department revealed that a total of

2,104 girls were married at the age of 16 over the span of five years from 2011 to
September 2015. Based on that data, that means around 420 non-Muslim girls
under the age of 18 are getting married every year.

According to Sabah Women’s Action Resource Group (Sawo) exco member Dr

Easwary Hari Ramulu, child marriages in Sabah are also still prevalent,
particularly in the more rural areas of the state.

“A recent interview conducted by a Sawo volunteer in Keningau and Telupid

revealed that many teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 were married off,”
she says.

Dr Easwary cites poverty and lack of education as the main reasons for child
marriages in Sabah.

“Poor enforcement of policies and laws pertaining to child marriage and the
lenient attitude of religious and community leaders that allow young girls to marry
is also a problem.

“Parents raising a female child might prefer to marry their daughter off, for fear
that she might indulge in premarital sex and bring shame to the family by getting
pregnant out of wedlock,” she adds.

Dr Easwary, who is a public physician by profession, highlights that child

marriage affects the child mentally, physically and emotionally.

“Child brides are at greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in

pregnancy and birth that can put the mother and child at risk.”

There should be zero tolerance to child marriages, she stresses, “They should
remain children, rather than become wives or mothers.”

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 In a poll Unicef conducted in May, the United Nations agency found that 70% of
respondents felt that child marriage was not acceptable, while 17% of respondents
were “not sure” and 12% thought child marriage was acceptable.

“An overwhelming number of people believes that child marriage is not right and
something that should be stopped,” says Unicef senior social policy specialist Dr
Amjad Rabi. “However, there is still a percentage that still thinks child marriage
is okay. But I think this is largely due to misinformation and the lack of
understanding.”

Dr Amjad urges people to think about whether they want their own daughter or
granddaughter or niece to get married below the age of 18.

“Every father wants the best for their daughter. They want their daughter equipped
with education so that she can become a strong and independent woman.
Education is so important,” he says.

However, child marriage often means the end of education for girls, Dr Amjad
points out.

“Many child brides drop out of schools or have no access to education, so these
girls won’t receive the opportunities an education might give them, they will be
working in low-paying jobs that has less reward.”

For Malaysia to become a developed country, Dr Amjad says it is crucial for us to

end child marriage.

“There is no developed country that has a common practice of child marriage. We

need to empower the child and bring him or her to their full potential.

“Malaysia needs its children to stay in school and later become part of the
workforce. We need the contribution of everyone in order to be a productive
country that will propel Malaysia to developed status.”

Let’s talk about sex

In their recent report Child Marriage: Its Relationship with Religion, Culture and
Patriarchy, Sisters In Islam (SIS) and the Asian Pacific Resource and Research
Centre for Women (ARROW) highlighted that the main factors behind local child

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 marriage cases are religious conservatism, patriarchal beliefs and reasons of
sexual impropriety.

SIS communications manager Majidah Hashim says, “Cultures and societies

change throughout the centuries. The situation of the girl child in medieval time
is a completely different reality from the girl child of 2018.”

Child marriage violates girls’ basic rights to health, education, to live in safety and
to choose when and whom to marry, adds Majidah, highlighting that several
Islamic countries have changed their laws to set the minimum age of marriage at
18, including Egypt, Pakis¬tan (Sindh Province), Morocco, Oman, Turkey and
Algeria.

Voice of the Children chairperson Sharmila Sekaran feels we should not be afraid
to talk about sex to youths.

“There is a lot of vilification and criminalisation of a very natural activity, that is

something that we have to step away from. We need to stop being afraid of
sexuality,” she says, underlining the importance of talking about sex in the “right
kind of setting” and bringing the topic out in the open.

“We are not teaching our children to go out and have sex, but to respect bodies,
how they can say no, and to avoid indulging in sex.

“But for whatever reason they feel like they need to indulge in sex, they should
know the risks and how to take precautions.

“If you don’t tell a young person, how would they know?” Sharmila argues.

She stresses that child marriage should not be used as a tool to try resolve social
problems such as premarital sex and teenage pregnancy.

“Civil society organisations have done studies and research whereby the data
indicates that a lot of these marriages don’t last. Very often the girl is left with the
offspring of the marriage and the man moves on.

“It is not as if you are getting these girls married, and it is happily-ever-after.
Within months or years, they often get divorced and move on.”

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 “Child marriage is not resolving the issue, you are creating an even bigger social
problem because you got young women and children stuck in a poverty cycle,”
she notes.

Eliminating child marriage

DAP Wanita publicity secretary Kasthuri Patto is campaigning for the

Government to set the minimum marriage age to 18, with no exceptions.

“We cannot be in denial of this problem any longer. We must ensure that we as a
nation are making a stand against child marriage,” she says.

“We must have no exemptions or special cases where child marriage is allowed.”

Kasthuri points out that Pakatan Harapan has already pledged to set the minimum
marriage age at 18 in their manifesto, and she plans to ensure that Pakatan’s
promise is fulfilled.

“The next step is speak to civil organisations and other members of Parliament,
and meet with the Women’s Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to
make this pledge a reality,” she says.

Kasthuri believes that ending child marriage in Malaysia will lead to several social
and economic benefits.

“With children getting married at a young age, they tend to have children soon
after, which leads to health complications with their pregnancies. They are also
more likely to suffer from domestic violence and drop out of school, which will
lead to stunted knowledge.

“Malaysia as a signatory of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the

Child also has a moral duty to put her foot down and once and for all put an end
to child marriages,” says Kasthuri.

Echoing Kasthuri, Girls Not Brides chairperson Princess Mabel van Oranje says
that child marriage is a global problem that cuts across countries, cultures,
religions and ethnicities.

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 “When parents marry their daughters off because they think it is the right thing to
do, it is actually very harmful, not just for the girls, but for their families and
communities,” she says, citing a 2017 report published by the World Bank and the
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), which indicated that child
marriage will cost developing countries trillions of dollars by 2030.

“Countries can save trillions of dollars if they end child marriage because children
will stay in schools and have have more earning power, they will save in the cost
of healthcare, when people have babies later they will also have fewer babies that
has an effect on population growth,” she says.

“There is a long list of reasons that basically tell you that if you want to create a
world without poverty, we have to end child marriage. It is the economically smart
thing to do.”

Princess Mabel is nonetheless optimistic in seeing Malaysia reform their laws to

ensure that the minimum age of marriage is set at 18 for all.

“I hope to see this change in both Malaysia’s civil law and Islamic law. That means
the Government needs to work together and unite forces with United Nation
organisations and civil societies to come up with concrete programmes to help end
child marriage,” she says, reiterating that Malaysia without child marriage would
be “a Malaysia that is better educated, healthier, more prosperous, and more
equal.”

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 1.2 Article 2

Will Malaysia ban child marriage?

This year has been eventful and it’s still just the middle of March. The world greeted 2020 with
paranoia and caution as the COVID-19 novel coronavirus spread around the globe. Malaysia
is no exception to the outbreak with over 100 people tested positive for the virus as of 12
March.

In late February, the country was in turmoil as former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad
resigned from his position and an alleged ‘backdoor government’ was formed. Political drama
and claims of betrayal from various parties headlined the local news. The king then appointed
Muhyiddin Yassin, the former deputy president of Pakatan Harapan (Pact of Alliance) as the
eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Muhyiddin's new coalition, Perikatan Nasional (National Alliance) includes the United Malays
National Organisation (UMNO), the political party of disgraced ex-prime minister Najib
Razak, as well as the Malaysian Islamic Party or Parti Islam Se Malaysia (PAS) that wants
tougher Islamic laws to be implemented. The list of Malaysia’s new Cabinet ministers was
announced on 9 March, 2020 and some Malaysians are not too happy about the line-up.

One of the most discussed appointments was that of Siti Zailah, who serves as the new deputy
minister of the Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) Ministry in
Malaysia.

Siti Zailah has been criticised on social media, particularly on Twitter as her old tweets
regarding child marriage have resurfaced and are going viral.

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According to local media reports, back in 2017 in a parliamentary debate on the Child Sexual
Offences Bill – a member of parliament (MP) from Kulai, a district in the southern state of
Johor in Malaysia, proposed to include a minimum age for marriage in the bill. However, Siti
Zailah argued against the bid and used religion to exclude this clause from the bill.

The minister was then reported to have said that there is a difference between sexual offences
against children which is an act of violence - and underage marriage. This sparked an outcry
from local activists.

Although most of these reports on Siti Zailah’s stance on child marriage are from the past, her
predecessor, Hannah Yeoh has expressed concerns that the issue of child marriage is going to
be brushed aside due to the appointment of the new KPWKM deputy minister.

Child brides are not unheard of in Malaysia. According to a United Nations (UN) report from
2010, over 80,000 married women in Malaysia were girls between the ages of 15 and 19.
However, the actual number could be higher as many couples do not register their marriages.

Girls Not Brides, an organisation committed to ending child marriage stated that child marriage
in Malaysia is driven by a few factors which include trafficking, traditional attitudes, gender
norms and pre-marital sex.

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There have been many cases in Malaysia where parents are too poor to support their children
and would marry off their young daughters to older men so that they are taken care of.
According to reports, some young wives were alleged victims of marital rape – which has yet
to be criminalised in the country.

Some conservatives would also argue that it is better for girls to marry at a young age in order
to curb pre-marital sex in the Muslim-majority country. In 2014, the UN expressed concern
that authorities in Malaysia were encouraging child marriage to curb pre-marital sex and
children born out of wedlock. Sex outside of marriage is an offense in Malaysia. This often
drives youths into marriage out of fear of prosecution.

Five-year plan

In 2018, following public outcry over the case of a 41-year-old man who married an 11-year-
old girl in the east coast state of Kelantan in Malaysia, the government at the time responded
by saying that it was in the process of drafting a bill that would ban child marriages in the
country.

In 2019, former KPWKM minister and former deputy prime minister, Dr Wan Azizah Wan
Ismail stated that the federal government could not enforce a total ban on child marriages
nationwide as seven states in Malaysia disagreed with the proposed bill. Only the state of
Selangor in which the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur is located has successfully amended
its laws on child marriage. Five other states have also agreed to amend their laws.

Earlier this year, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail launched the national strategic plan to address
the causes of underage marriage. The plan comprised of seven objectives, 17 strategies and 58
programmes to tackle the causes in the next five years.

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Among the causes identified are poverty; lack or no access to reproductive health education;
lack of access to education and society's stigma that marriage is the best choice to solve
problems.

“These causes will be addressed through policy changes, to amend the relevant laws and the
implementation of awareness programmes and activities,” said Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Child marriage strips girls off their right to a proper education and better opportunities.
Hopefully, Siti Zailah and Rina Harun, who was appointed as KPWKM minister will continue
with the efforts and initiatives of their predecessors in fighting for women’s and children’s
rights in Malaysia.

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 1.3 Article 3

Child Marriage (Executive Summary)

“I see my friends and next thing you know, they’re in Form 5,” says a girl who left school in
Form 1 to get married, which she now regrets. “They’re almost out of school. It’s a shame I
didn’t go.” The girl, who belongs to the Orang Asli Jah Hut community in Malaysia, is one of
140 boys and girls who were interviewed during the course of this study to gain insight into
child marriage. There is strong public opposition to the practice in Malaysia, but the data that
is needed to provide an accurate and complete assessment of the prevalence of child marriage
in the country is outdated, unavailable or cannot be made public.

Existing evidence, however, indicates that child marriage is practised in Muslim, nonMuslim,
indigenous and refugee communities in Malaysia. For example, available data shows that there
were some 15,000 girls who were married before the age of 15 as of October 2010. The
researchers also obtained data that showed there were 5,215 cases of married non-Muslim
female children (16 to 18 years old) from 2005 to October 2015. As for Muslims, the
Department of Syariah Judiciary, Malaysia recorded 6,584 cases of marriage among Muslim
children from 2011 to October 2016. According to the 2010 Orang Asli Census, there were 196
married Orang Asli children out of 63,883 married couples in that community in that year.

Based on interviews conducted and analysis of Shariah court files, the factors that place
children at risk include low household income, which strongly correlates with children
dropping out of school. Children who marry tend to have a poor understanding of sexual and
reproductive health (SRH) issues, which in turn leads to a higher risk of pregnancy out of
wedlock. Parents also lack an effective intervention support system, which leaves many of
them believing that marriage is the best solution when their children become sexually active or
become pregnant. Community social norms accept child marriage as an option.

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Several legal and policy bottlenecks hinder efforts to curb child marriage in the country.
Malaysia’s complex legal system – which encompasses shariah, civil and customary law –
makes it difficult to define ‘child’ in the context of child marriage. For example, civil law
stipulates that the legal age of marriage for non-Muslims is 18 (although females aged 16 to 18
may marry with the consent of their state Chief Minister or Menteri Besar). Muslim law,
however, which governs Malaysia’s Muslim-majority population, provides that while girls may
marry at 16 and boys at 18, the Shariah Court may grant permission to marry below those ages
(i.e. below 16 for girls and below 18 for boys). The establishment of a clear minimum age for
marriage at 18 in line with international standards that applies to all existing legal frameworks
is therefore a key first step to ending child marriage in Malaysia.

Although shariah court judges have the authority to grant permission to boys under 18 and girls
under 16 to marry, there is no standard operating procedure to guide them through the child
marriage application process. This leaves judges to their own discretion and their individual
understanding of Islamic legal perspectives when assessing each case. This study found that
court decisions have usually been made in contravention of the international conventions and
laws that Malaysia has ratified, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Judges also often rule from the position that child marriage is a viable solution to social
problems such as pre-marital sexual activity and pregnancy out of wedlock, especially in the
case of the latter, as marriage is perceived to save the baby from illegitimacy. Child marriage
is thus a preferred and acceptable alternative to children being born out of wedlock.

According to case files and judges’ notes made available to researchers, common reasons that
shariah court judges gave for approving child marriage applications included the children’s
ability to support a family and manage a household, their memorization of basic Islamic
teachings and the availability of family support after marriage. Reasons judges gave for
rejecting marriage applications included any evidence of coercion, lack of consent from a
guardian, a lack of knowledge of basic Islamic teachings, unemployment (for male applicants)
and a criminal record. An analysis of case files from the shariah courts of seven states during
the period of this study (2012 to 2016) revealed that of 2,143 applications for child marriage,

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only 10 were rejected, emphasizing that child marriage is easily accepted within the judicial
system.

A key policy drawback, meanwhile, is the lack of a clear sex education policy. The current
SRH school programme teaches students about various SRH issues through the subjects of
science, religion and moral education, with an emphasis on abstinence. However, more direct
topics, such as sex, sexuality, contraceptive use/practice and abortion are not addressed, and
any effort to do so is challenged by the belief – shared by teachers, parents and religious leaders
– that sex education encourages sexual activity among children. This does not encourage
political will to re-evaluate current SRH education initiatives and implement a more
comprehensive programme, despite evidence that children are more likely to delay sexual debut
when they are well informed about SRH.

Another important bottleneck is the lack of government jurisdictional responsibility over child
marriage. While the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development oversees the
wellbeing of children and has affirmed that such marriage is not in the interest of a child,
Ministry officials also say that child marriage is not within the Ministry’s jurisdiction because
Muslim marriages are governed by state Islamic enactments, not federal law. Nonetheless, the
Ministry formed a taskforce in 2013 to make recommendations for government agencies to
“curb” child marriage, but this has not led to any significant action so far. However, the
recently-elected Alliance of Hope Government (Pakatan Harapan) included in its election
manifesto a pledge to introduce a law that sets 18 as the minimum age of marriage. This is part
of its commitment to ensuring that the legal system protects women’s rights and dignity under
their “Special Commitment for Women”.

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2.0 Graph

1. This bar chart shows the child marriage cases between states in Malaysia from 2013
to 2018.
2. Sarawak was recorded with the highest number of child marriage cases in Malaysia.
3. The total cases of child marriage in Sarawak was 947 while in Penang, there was only
91 cases which was, lower than Sarawak.

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3.0 Outline

Introduction
Introduce topic Child marriage in Malaysia
Credibility Indicates that child marriage is practice in Muslim, non-
Muslim, indigenous and refugee communities in Malaysia.
For example, available data shows that there were some
15,000 girls who were married before the age of 15 as of
October 2010. 1 The researchers also obtained data that
showed there were 5,215 cases of married non-Muslim 2
female children (16 to 18 years old) from 2005 to October
2015. As for Muslims, the Department of Syariah Judiciary,
Malaysia recorded 6,584 cases of marriage among Muslim
children from 2011 to October 2016. According to the 2010
Orang Asli Census, there were 196 married Orang Asli
children out of 63,883 married couples in that community in
that year.
Background of topic Child marriage is a violation of children’s human rights.
Despite being prohibited by international human rights law and
many national laws, child marriage continues to rob millions
of girls around the world of their childhood. It forces them out
of education and into a life of poor prospects, with increased
risk of violence, abuse, ill health or early death. While boys are
also married as children, child marriage affects girls in greater
numbers and with consequences which can be devastating for
their health and well-being.
Central Idea Child marriage can have degrading impacts on children in
terms of their health & wellbeing become vulnerable to abuse
especially sexual abuse, self-protection (from Abuse &
exploitation), education, poverty and human rights & justice.

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 Body
(Describing chart[s] and/or graph[s])
I. Description of data 1. This bar chart shows the child marriage cases between
(Chart 1) states in Malaysia from 2013 to 2018.
2. Sarawak was recorded with the highest number of
child marriage cases in Malaysia.
Analysis of data 1. The total cases of child marriage in Sarawak was 947
(Chart 1) while in Penang, there was only 91 cases which was,
lower than Sarawak.
Conclusion
Conclusion From the chart, it can be seen that the number of child
marriage cases in Malaysia is indeed worrying and should be
monitored as well as prevented for the wellbeing of our
children.
Recommendation These can be used by policy makers when creating
intervention program targeting young female adolescents to
strengthen sex education and empower female adolescents so
that they will not choose child marriage but will find hope in
other meaningful life goals. Strengthening sex education for
female adolescents at school and in the community as early as
the onset of puberty is necessary to prevent and reduce
unwanted pregnancy. Additionally, it is important to involve
family members in sex education at school so that a close
understanding between the family and the school can be
achieved. Solely raising the legal minimum age of marriage
will not solve the problems of child marriage as the factors
leading to child marriage are diverse and intricately
intertwined and affect the lives of girls, girls’ families and the
society in which girls live. It is also important to create
support program for girls from poor family for their
education, so that being a dropout is no longer an option.
Future studies are required to examine the association of child
marriage with personality and with interpersonal domains

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 such as belief in fate, school dropout and relationships with
parents and peers.

4.0 Presentation Slides

1.

2.

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 3.

4.

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 5.

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5.0 References

1. Victoria Brown. (2018, July 1). Child marriage is no happily-ever-after. The Star.
Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my
2. Athira Nortajuddin. (2020, March 12). Will Malaysia ban child marriage? Retrieved
from https://theaseanpost.com/
3. Prof Dato’ Noor Aziah Mohd Awal, & Mohd Al Adib Samuri. (2018). Child Marriage
in Malaysia. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/

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