The Child Marriage Restraint Bill was approved by lawmakers last week and is expected to be signed into law by President Asif Ali Zardari. The bill targets adult-minor relationships by making cohabitation with a minor punishable by up to seven years in prison and a fine of one million rupees (roughly $2,663 USD). law is set to begin in Islamabad, with lawmakers hoping other provinces will adopt similar measures.
The Council of Islamic Ideology, a government advisory body on religious matters, publicly rejected the bill in a statement issued Tuesday, reports Daily Mail.
“Declaring marriage below the age of eighteen as child abuse and prescribing punishments for it, and other controversial provisions, are not in line with Islamic injunctions,” the council said. “Overall, the Council rejected the bill. It also clarified that this bill was not sent to the Council for review by the Parliament or the Senate.” The council further argued that instead of legal penalties, “a public awareness campaign in this regard could prove more effective.”
The bill received support from several women in parliament who experienced child marriage firsthand. Senator Naseema Ehsan, who said she was married at 13, voiced strong approval: “I’ve never been so content to vote for a bill as the child marriage restraint bill… It was a very much needed bill.”
She told the Senate: “I was lucky to have good and affluent in-laws but most Pakistani women are not so lucky. Not every child has a supportive husband like me.”
Senator Sherry Rehman, who presented the bill after it was introduced by MP Sharmila Farooqi in the National Assembly, said the legislation would “send a powerful message.” According to Rehman, “It’s a very important signal to the country, to our development partners, and to women that their rights are protected at the top.”
Research cited in the bill indicates that child marriage harms both boys and girls, but particularly girls who reach puberty and become capable of childbirth.
Activist group Girls Not Brides and Pakistan’s National Institute of Population Studies report that about 18 percent of women in Pakistan are married before 18, and 4 percent before turning 15. Pakistan is ranked among the top 10 countries with the highest number of child brides, with over 20 million women married before the age of 18.
