KUCHING: It is not easy to enforce civil statutory rape laws on men who have sex with their underage wives in traditional marriages.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said legally, the men could be charged. However, she gave two reasons why it was currently difficult to enforce the law.
Firstly, most states, with the exception of Selangor and Kedah, had laws that allowed girls as young as 16 to be legally married, via traditional marriages.
Secondly, she said it was also a sensitive matter to interfere in an ethnic group's traditions and customary practices.
She was asked to comment on a report in which a Sarawak civil society organisation had warned that men who had sex with their underage wives could be charged with statutory rape.
She said this after witnessing the handover of sponsorships to the Sarawak General Hospital's 'Anjung Kasih' and 'Bilik Kasih Wanita' here, today.
"Most states have not changed their laws. Sarawak has also not changed its law," she said.
Nancy pointed out that despite Selangor and Kedah having amended their laws to raise the legal marrying age to 18, they had yet to enforce it on those who married women under the legal age.
Recently, the Society for Rights of Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak (Scrips) warned that men could face rape charges if they had sex with their underage wives.
Its secretary-general, Michael Jok, told a news portal that while there was nothing in the customary laws that said men could not get married to girls under 18 or have sexual relations with them if they were his wives, civil law could take precedence as it defined such sex as statutory rape.
The age of consent under civil law in Malaysia is 18.