Legality of underage marriage according to Islamic law and Civil law / Mardiah Mohd Talib, Nur Izzati Kamarul Zaki and Rosnani Abdul Ghani.

In Malaysia, the minimum age for a Muslim to get married is eighteen for the male party and sixteen years of age for the female party and failure to comply with this requirement will made the party liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit or six months imprisonments or both. On the other hand, Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 which is applicable for non Muslim provided that the minimum age of marriage is fixed at eighteen years with the proviso that a female party who has attained the age of sixteen years may be married if she had obtained a license from Chief Minister. No marriage may be solemnized when the girl is under sixteen, otherwise the party will be punished with and imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit for non Muslim. Hence, the cases of child marriage increase from day to day due to the insufficient term of punishment. Therefore, our group proposes to suggest that a higher punishment to be implemented in order to curb the problem of underage marriages in Malaysia which is punishment for statutory rape under S376 (2) Penal Code. Plus, we will also highlight the effects of passing of law that allows under age marriage in Malaysia. This research adopts qualitative type of research. Semi-structured interviews, library and internet research will be conducted in order to gathered information and to obtain
different view regarding the research topic.