Ending child marriages in Malaysia an uphill battle, says Nancy Shukri

The Star

The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is always looking for avenues to bring the much-needed change to end child marriages in the country.  Its minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said although it was an uphill task, the ministry was not willing to give up on the issue.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/3xzt2rvp  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Women's rights group Sisters in Islam has urged the government to take decisive action

00:14against child marriage in Malaysia on risk-paying and commitment to children and the international

00:20human rights standards.

00:21How do you respond?

00:22Well, I think we have been responding on this a lot.

00:24I think it is up to the state government.

00:27We cannot change it.

00:30Of course, we have been discussing about it.

00:33But the thing is, again, child marriage or marriage is under the state government, the

00:38very state government.

00:39I know in our country, we already have two states that have amended their constitution,

00:47Kedah and Selangor.

00:48But how far they really executed, I'm not so sure.

00:53So that's the situation in our country.

00:56We can push, we can pressure the government, but again, they will say, who are you to tell

01:01us what to do?

01:02Because only they know the situation in their own state.

01:06So of course, if you talk to them informally, they will say that nobody would want that

01:14to happen.

01:15But what happens if they have their own culture in the various states?

01:21So this is something that is difficult for us to impose.

01:26But we do our best.

01:28Actually, I even spoke informally to the certain chief ministers of the state, if I meet them,

01:36because I want them to support us.

01:40But they said, you have to understand, it's not as easy as what you think.

01:44But we should not give up on this.

01:49We still have to keep looking for venues whereby we can bring this matter up again and try

01:55to bring the change for them.

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