Sisters in Islam is a group that was started back in 1987 by a group of female lawyers,

academics, journalists, activists, and analysts with the aim to study any problems then

associated with the implementation of new Islamic Family Laws. Many troubled women

confided in the members of the group regarding their marital problems and the difficulty in

seeking legal redress from the religious authorities in the country. The members of the Sisters

in Islam noticed that many Muslim women in the country believed that Islam demanded

obedience to their husbands, even if their husbands were not deserving of it, and this

phenomenon urged them to reread the Text of the Qur’an, to really find out for themselves

whether or not Islam truly supported the oppression and ill-treatment of women. Their

Textual studies of the Qur’an was the start of all the breakthroughs that the group would

eventually make, including having their letters published in The Star, New Straits Times,

Utusan Malaysia and Utusan Melayu in 1990, the launch of their two booklets “Are women

and men equal before Allah?” and “Are Muslim men allowed to beat their wives?” in 1991,

submitting two memorandums to the Government regarding Kelantan’s Hudud Law the

Domestic Violence Act in 1993 and 1994 respectively, establishing a training module on

women’s rights in Islam in 2000, and establishing a legal clinic in 2003.

        The Sisters in Islam’s current mission is “To promote the principles of gender

equality, justice, freedom, and dignity in Islam, and empower women to be advocates for

change.” (Sisters in Islam, n.d.) with core values including faith in God, equality, justice,

compassion, and pursuit of knowledge. In the near future, Sisters in Islam hopes to promote a

framework of Islam that may also take into consideration women’s realities and struggles,

whilst also eliminating injustice and discrimination against women. Today, the group

operates in an official office with full-time staff, and also admits male associate members,

including muftis, scholars, and judges. As we progress into the 21st century and face all the

controversial issues that have come with it, it is enlightening to know that the Sisters in Islam
has managed to successfully create a public voice and a safe space that allows Muslims to

engage with their faith in the struggle for justice, human rights, and democracy.

With a rise in controversial issues happening in Malaysia, Sister in Islam now

encompasses a wider range of considerations of Islamic law, one of them being the

legitimacy of child marriage. With recent reports of a 41 year old Malaysian man and an 11

year old Thai girl’s legal marriage in Malaysia, child marriage is to no one’s surprise, a

renewed topic of discussion. (Star, 2018) Child marriage is defined as “a formal marriage or

informal union before the age of 18” (UNICEF, 2011) whereas the Inter-African Committee

defines it as “Any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is

physically, physiologically, and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of

marriage” (1993). From 2010 to 2015, the Ministry of Women and Family Development

(KPWKM) reported 9061 child marriages. However, United Nations Population Fund

(UNFPA) reported an estimated number of more than 15000 children that were married

before the age of 19 in Malaysia in the year 2014 (UNFPA,2016). Most data available were

irregular and even contradictory, which begs the question, is the data held back to Malaysians

a barrier to effective advocacy on banning child marriage? If Malaysians knew the severity of

child marriage would it still be an issue plaguing this country?

Despite poverty being cited as the main cause for child marriage, alongside with the

common misconception that child marriage is the product of unable parents who cannot

support their daughters financially and education which does not seem to be the case for

Malaysia. Malaysia being a developing nation has a 32:21 female to male enrolment ratio in

tertiary education, debunking the idea that females are uneducated hence, more susceptible to

child marriage. Instead, reasons for child marriage in Malaysia include shame and sexual

impropriety (SIS, 2018). Malaysia, an Islamic state, leans towards a conservative culture

where subjects of sex and sexuality are taboo and premarital sex is often heavily emphasized
as an intolerable sin in Islam. The manifestation of these patriarchal beliefs have led parents

to believe that the only way to avoid “shame” and a life of discrimination is to marry the

boyfriend or father of the unborn child to legitimize the relationship.

The Islamic Law Act 1984 in Malaysia states that any boy under 18 and any girl

under 18 can get married with consent of a Syariah judge. (HOW TO CITE LAW??) whereas

the Law Reform Act 1976 states that Non-Muslims are only eligible for marriage at the age

of 21 or under 18 with parents’ consent. When questioning the legitimacy of child marriage

within the context of Islamic law, the Quran states that a girl is allowed to be married once

she reaches puberty, regardless of her mental and emotional state (Quran 9:206). Prophet

Muhammad’s marriage with Aishah who was speculated to be 6 at the time of their marriage

is also often brought up to justify child marriage in the context of Islamic law. These two

driving factors have since prevented a total ban of child marriage and sustained the

legalization of such a practice.

Sister in Islam took the opportunity to collaborate with Asian-Pacific Resource and Research
Centre for Women (ARROW) to address the severity of this issue in a report titled “Child
Marriage: Its Relationship with Religion, Culture and Patriarchy”. The desired outcome of
this report was to

 Social identity theory – was developed by Henri Tajfel and examines how categorizing
people (including oneself) into ingroups or outgroups affects perceptions, attitudes, and
behavior.
- Can we talk about like ingroup and outgroup thing. Im not sure how to link but
basically SIS perceives themselves as the ingroup and the outgroup is muslims that
are for child marriage. So they damn passionate about advocating against child
marriage?
- If there is an outgroup there will be a cause to fight for? It’s because sis sees there is
an outgroup that’s why they started this project/awareness?
- System justification theory – proposes that people have a motivation to defend and
bolster the status quo, in order to continue believing that their social, political, and
economic systems are legitimate and just.
- I’m not sure if this is applicable but because SIS does not believe in child marriage
they say things like Aishah (Proph muhammad’s wife was 6 when they got married)
and they said that interpretation for a child to be able to marry is to hit puberty is
narrow, taken out of context and more for context in the olden days?
- But if the Quran is “timeless” then they would be contradicting themselves, because
if that is olden context, then their quran would not be valid today. So what should
they believe in if their belief is based on the quran?
- Although, they mentioned valid points they never said what the “real” context was.
- So, to reduce cognitive dissonance, they say their objective is to debunk the misguided
understanding that Islam is a religion that promotes or condones child marriage (But what is the
correct understanding then?)
- Hence because they still love allah they defend their belief this way. It’s like saying
- I believe in Allah, but if he promotes child marriage which are against my values, how
can I believe in allah if it doesn’t make sense. So, if Allah is good, there is no way he
condones child marriage, that’s why they attempt to debunk in order to
justify.Hence, system justification theory.

Intervention
- A stronger justification than quran is taken out of context. Like what is the proper
context then? Facts are important
-
 In order to successfully spur social change, it is also important to create an
environment that can maintain the intended change. Such an approach is also known as an
upstream intervention (Verplanken & Wood, 2006). Upstream and downstream approaches
have a common tactic used in health interventions that have been proven to work. The
intervention employed by the Sister in Islam for child marriage reflects a similar breakdown.
Complimentary to the downward approach, they also advocate for law reform which includes
standardizing a minimum age of marriage at 18 years old without exceptions, establishing
standard operating procedures for the Shariah court. This is directly addressing the
complications of having multiple legal frameworks for Muslims, the natives and bumiputera
of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. Laws regulating marriage for non-Muslims
requires that parties involved must be at least 18 years old. However, an exemption may be
made for the girl if she is under 18 but above 16 years in which the Chief Minister of the state
may grant her permission to marry. There are no exception for boys (Suhor, 1976). For the
Muslim majority in Malaysia, the Islamic law permits boys under 18 years and girls under 16
years to marry. The Shariah Court however has the ability to permit boys below the age of 18
and girls below the age of 16 to marry. It is noteworthy that there is no standard operating
procedure that a Shariah court judge has to follow and it is solely in the judge’s discretion to
assess each case. A recent study done by UNICEF (2018) has found that attempted
interventions have been made by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
during these court decisions. They stated few of the implications of child marriage such as
violations of children’s rights, a negative effect on the child’s educational development,
emotional development and even medical consequences, both physical and mental.

Despite the ample amount of negative consequences with regard to child marriage,
why are Shariah court judges resilient in their mindset? The system justification theory states
that people each perceive their beliefs in their own personal interest by defending and
justifying the status quo, despite it being at a disadvantage for a certain population. (Jost et
al., 2010). Case in point, as it is in the Shariah court judge’s discretion to permit a child to be
married, if the judge holds the belief that child marriage is a viable solution for premarital sex
and a pregnancy out of wedlock, the child will be granted permission to marry regardless of
the child’s mental and emotional state. To reinforce this justification, is also often brought up
by a judge that the Quran states that a girl is allowed to be married once she reaches puberty
(Quran 9:206). Alongside this sole criteria, the justification that Prophet Muhammad’s
marriage with Aishah who was speculated to be 6 at the time is often used for solace of the
judge’s sound mind in permitting child marriage. Sisters in Islam however, counters this by
stating that there have been evidence putting doubt to Aishah’s young age. Modern
interpretation of the verses of the Quran such as the notion of puberty are also often taken out
of context as it is no longer applicable to this day and age. (SIS & ARROW, 2018). Hence,
the importance of having a standard operating procedure should be highlighted in guiding a
judge in handing child marriage applications instead of leaving it in the judge’s sole
discretion. Theoretically, Sister in Islam(SIS) too falls under the system justification theory.
Despite coming out with the notion that some verses in the Quran are taken out of context
(i.e., the concept of puberty), it was never justified what the “real” context was and if the
Quran is timeless as it is claimed, wouldn’t the Quran in its’ entirety be still applicable and
valid in todays’ day and age. Hence, SIS uses system justification theory to serve as a
palliative function by attempting to debunk the misguided understanding that Islam is a
religion that promotes child marriage despite failing to provide a correct understanding of
such beliefs. Perhaps the ambiguity of SIS’s defence on the understanding of Quran may
have limited the efficacy of SIS’s advocacy in curbing child marriage.
 However, Sisters in Islam is not wrong in its entirety by stating the Quran is
often taken out of context. “And test the orphans [in your charge] until they reach a marriage-
able age; then, if you find them to be mature of mind/sound in judgment, hand over to them
their possessions…” (Quran, 4:6) is often used to defend the legitimacy of child marriage.
Taking the recent case of the 41 year old Malaysian man and 11 year old Thai girl who was
permitted for marriage, how are we to expect an 11 year old to be of sound judgement.
Hence, to combat this ambiguity, SIS could take the approach that a child of 11 compared to
an 18 year old would not be able to make sound judgement. To put things into perspective,
Malaysians currently have to be 21 years to vote . Recent discussions of lowering the voting
age from 21 to 18 have already caused a huge uproar that 18 year olds are not “mature”
enough to make sound judgement, what more marriage?

The ultimate solution however, to curbing child marriage would be a total ban on
child marriage regardless of religion and ethnicity.

Sisters in Islam & Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women , (2018).
National Report on Building New Constituencies for Women’s Sexual and Reproductive
Health and Rights (SRHR): Religious Fundamentalism and SRHR (PUBLISHER?)

Jost, J. T., Liviatan, I., Van Der Toorn, J., Ledgerwood, A., Mandisodza, A., & Nosek, B. A. (2011).
System justification: A motivational process with implications for social conflict. In Justice and
conflicts (pp. 315-327). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.