Banning child marriage is un-Islamic, Pakistani government told
Banning child marriage is un-Islamic, Pakistan's government was told after setting 18 as the minimum age to marry.
Its Child Marriage Restraint Bill, unanimously passed by both houses of the country's parliament, seeks to protect the rights of children and eventually eradicate child marriage.
Any form of co-habitation between adults and minors will be deemed statutory rape and punished by up to seven years in prison and a fine of no less than 1 million Pakistani rupees (£2,663).
But the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which advises the government on theological issues, said it rejected the bill because classifying marriage under the age of 18 as rape did not conform with Islamic law.
Child marriage should be discouraged but the Bill 'has been declared un-Islamic', it said on Wednesday.
Despite the CII's opposition, the Bill is to be signed into law in the coming days by Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president.
It will replace British colonial-era legislation that set the legal age of marriage for boys to 18 and girls at 16, although many Pakistani children continue to be coerced into underage marriages.
The new legislation will apply to Islamabad, the capital, but politicians and activists hope to roll out similar laws to other areas of the country in the future. A similar Bill was passed in Sindh province over a decade ago.
The CII's verdict is unlikely to prevent the law's enactment in Islamabad but it could increase opposition to future legislation in more religious areas.
Pakistan has one of the highest rates of underage marriage in the world, with nearly 30 million women – roughly 30 per cent of the female population – wed before the age of 18.
Girls Not Brides, a global coalition aiming to end child marriage, has reported that 4 per cent of Pakistani girls and 5 per cent of Pakistani boys marry before the age of 15.
During the parliamentary debate, Naseema Ehsan, 50, a senator, shared her personal story of being married at 13 and said she wanted the practice banned.
Those married as children are statistically the most likely to drop out of school, and are reported to often face domestic violence, or health complications, particularly with underage pregnancies.
Dr Ifrah Aslam, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Mumbai, said: 'These girls are still growing themselves; their bodies aren't ready to carry a pregnancy.
'Yet many are forced into early motherhood, often without access to contraception or proper maternal care. It's no surprise that we see higher rates of miscarriage, childbirth complications, and even death, both for the mother and the baby.'
The Bill notes that research 'invariably proves that child marriage is harmful to both genders and especially girls who have hit puberty and are able to bear children'.
It adds: 'Furthermore, child marriages are in complete violation of the rights of children and international obligations and goal five of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals [which] focusses on gender equality and includes a target to end child marriage by 2030.
'Therefore, in order to restrain child marriages and protect the basic rights of children, it is expedient to enact a law.'
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