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THE ROOT PROBLEM of 'too early' Muslim marriages has been teenage sex, say community leaders, counsellors and sociologists. -- ST PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: WANG HUI FEN
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THE legal marriage age for Muslims will be raised from 16 to 18 later this year, but some community leaders are worried that it might not have the desired effect of curbing high divorce rates.
Instead, such a move might result in more single mothers fronting dysfunctional families and also more abortions. The latter is disallowed in Islam.
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim told Parliament earlier this month that raising Muslims' marriage age signalled the community's resolve to tackle its divorce rate by curbing 'minor marriages'.
Raising the age to 18 will bring Muslim marriages in line with that for other Singaporeans.
Some 20 community leaders, counsellors and sociologists interviewed agree that the root problem of 'too early' Muslim marriages has been teenage sex, and that one effect has been Muslims' high divorce rate.
As such, some feel that the move will achieve one key aim if sex and marriage are postponed to a later age, when couples are more responsible.
But others worry that given the reality of teenage sex and if denied the option of marriage, Muslim girls who become pregnant before 18 will have to raise their babies alone.
Worse, they might turn to abortion. Already, abortion rates among Muslim girls are high. About a third of all teen abortions in 2004 involved young Malay girls.
Counsellors said that in general, the 16-year-olds who tie the knot had become pregnant and were pressured into marriage by their parents.
Mr Pasuni Maulan, former registrar of Muslim marriages, fears that with the legal age set at 18, more pregnant girls will terminate their pregnancies. 'Because they are pregnant but cannot marry, they might resort to aborting their babies, which is worse.'
Single parenthood will be another issue to contend with as girls below 18 who are pregnant will now have to raise their babies alone.
There might also be an increase in sexually transmitted diseases due to sexual promiscuity with multiple partners instead of a single spouse, said Ms Raihan Ismail, centre manager for Inspirasi PPIS.
The centre is one of the two here which assess and counsel Muslim minors under 21 who want to wed.
Sociologist Paulin Straughan felt that although the new law cannot change teenage sexual behaviour, it will give parents and care- givers more clout. 'With the law behind them, parents and caregivers have more authority when playing the advisory role,' she said.
Ms Zaleha Ahmad, centre director for Inspirasi AMP, the other centre which counsels young spouses-to-be, agrees.
'Right now, we can only strongly discourage the 16-year-olds from getting married. With the new law, they'll have no choice but to wait until they are 18. By then, they are hopefully more mature,' she said.
The minimum age of 16 for Muslim marriages was set in 1968 when the Administration of Muslim Law Act (Amla) was enacted.
However, recent years have seen what counsellors say are 'too many' teen Muslim marriages. In 2006, there were 76 brides and 11 grooms who were aged 17 and below out of 3,945 Muslim marriages. In 2005, there were 81 such brides and 11 grooms among the 3,950 Muslim marriages.
These early marriages mostly ended in divorce.
Fourteen per cent of the Muslim women who got divorced in 2006 were below 25. In contrast, only 2 per cent of the non-Muslim women who got divorced that year were below 25.
Said Ms Raihan: 'Culturally, these Muslim families feel that marriage is a way to uphold the honour of their daughters.'
Last year, Inspirasi AMP saw 50 cases - or one in four cases - involving couples below 18 years old who wanted to get married.
Said Mr Md Yusof Ismail, chief executive of the Ain Society, a voluntary welfare organisation which works with youths at risk: 'You need to be 21 to watch RA movies and at least 18 to drink alcohol. Getting married is far more serious. You definitely need to be older than 16 years old.'
Or as Ms Siti Hamidah Bahashwan, founder of counselling firm Emotion Works, put it: 'At 18, they would have at least completed secondary school.'
However, they concede that a lot more needs to be done apart from raising the legal age for marriage.
Mr Muhammad Saiful Alam, a kadi (marriage solemniser) and imam at Kassim Mosque, thinks the best intervention begins at home with the parents.
'Many parents still regard sex as a taboo topic and do not talk about it. As a result, their children learn about sex from their peers.
'But even for Prophet Muhammad, no topic was taboo and shameful. It is okay to ask embarrassing questions rather than remain ignorant and do all the wrong things.'
ndianah@sph.com.sg
Will raising the marriage age from 16 to 18 help the problem of high divorce rates? What more can be done? Send your views to suntimes@sph.com.sg
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