海角大神

When the man who raped Saira asked for her hand in marriage, she was disgusted but unsurprised.

She was just 16. Her rapist expected she would keep her mouth shut听if they were married, she figured. He wouldn鈥檛 be the first Malaysian to protect himself that way from prosecution.

But Saira would not comply. The Muslim schoolgirl took her case to court, and her attacker was sentenced to eight years in jail.

鈥淭here might be pressures from the outside, but this is where you have to be strong,鈥� says Saira, not her real name, about resisting the unlikely marriage proposal. Today, she鈥檚 a confident 19-year-old, working at a full-time job.

If underage marriage were outlawed, say girls鈥� rights activists, there would be no risk that teen rape victims could be silenced by forced loyalty to their new husbands.

But as conservative strands of Islamic opinion gain influence in multi-ethnic, multi-religious Malaysia, child advocates are finding it an uphill battle to make marriage a matter for adults only.

Courts, but not necessarily justice

Lobbyists pressuring the government to criminalize child marriage 鈥渨ere getting quite a lot of momentum鈥� at one stage, says Tham Hui Ying, vice president of Malaysia鈥檚 Association of Women Lawyers. 鈥淏ut suddenly it became a hot button issue. It鈥檚 religious,鈥� so politicians are 鈥渘ot going to push to outright ban child marriage,鈥� she says.

Malaysia operates a dual legal system. Civil law sets the minimum age of marriage at 18. But under Islamic law, which applies to the Muslim majority on family and morality issues, girls may marry as young as 12 with approval from a Sharia court.听

Underage marriage cuts across ethnic and religious lines. About 1,000 Muslim teens get married every year, according to government figures. Fewer than half that number of underage non-Muslims wed, needing the consent of their state鈥檚 Chief Minister.

Nobody knows how many rapists avoid jail through marriage; rapes and out-of-court settlements often go unreported. But two court cases have galvanized efforts to outlaw child marriage altogether.

In 2013, a Sharia court in the eastern state of Sabah granted a 40-year-old restaurant manager permission to marry a 12-year-old girl he had raped.听A civil court dropped the rape case when the man later said he was going to marry his victim.

That decision flew in the face of Malaysian law, which does not allow rapists to escape prosecution by marriage. But it illustrated how far听courts 鈥� influenced by customary law or cultural habits 鈥� sometimes disregard the law of the land.

It also showed how difficult it can be for prosecutors to mount a successful case against a rapist without their key witness. If an underage victim has married her aggressor, she may well feel duty-bound to protect her husband.

Alarmed by the ruling, which triggered international headlines and public outrage the Sabah Women鈥檚 Action Resources Group (SAWO) led calls to the Attorney General to proceed with the criminal case. Eventually it went to trial. In 2014 the rapist, still married to his child bride, was sentenced to 12 years in jail.

鈥淲e wanted this case to set a precedent for other cases in the future,鈥� says SAWO鈥檚 president, Winnie Yee, in a telephone interview.

It did not do so, though. Last year a court in the eastern state of Sarawak again ignored the law, dismissing charges against a man accused of raping a 14-year-old girl after defense lawyers announced the pair had married.

Following pressure from rights groups, a retrial was ordered. But when the girl was called to testify she refused to give evidence and asked for the case to be withdrawn.

A shifting religious landscape

Ms. Yee had hoped the conviction SAWO helped secure in Sabah would give impetus to her campaign for a ban on child marriage, but 鈥渢here haven鈥檛 been any massive changes,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e are a bit disappointed.听 We need public awareness and a huge outcry.鈥�

That has yet to materialize at a time when religious sentiment is on the rise and when parents are anxious to prevent pre-marital sexual relations and pregnancies.

听鈥淢uslim conservatism is permeating our society right now,鈥� says Shareena Sheriff, a program manager at Sisters in Islam, a women鈥檚 group urging law reform on child marriage. And that is making child marriage a religious issue rather than a rights issue.

Malay Muslims form the majority of Malaysia鈥檚 30 million citizens, but the nation is also home to sizable ethnic Chinese and Indian communities, who are mostly 海角大神, Hindu, or Buddhist.

The tone of increasing听Islamic听conservatism is divisive, some听Malaysians听fear. In September, a launderette in southern Malaysia was rebuked by the state鈥檚 Sultan for its 鈥淢uslim-only鈥� policy. The same month organizers cancelled a craft beer festival in Kuala Lumpur after protests by Islamists.

The trend has been noticeable since the government introduced Islamization policies in the 1980s, and is increasingly influenced by hardline theologies from the Middle East.

Not all Muslims support child marriage. The influential National Fatwa Council has declared the practice harmful, for example.

But the rise of a more austere form of Islam is strengthening religious arguments that defend child marriage, analysts say. And when the ruling party is courting the conservative Muslim vote ahead of elections expected in 2018, the government has little appetite to promote anti-child marriage legislation.

Though Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man,听the deputy president of Malaysia鈥檚 biggest Islamist party, insists that marriage does not absolve a rapist of his crime, he does not oppose child marriage on principle.

鈥淭he big question is not age, but responsibility,鈥� says Mr.听Tuan Ibrahim, whose party is expected to be a kingmaker at the next elections. 鈥淚n the context of Islam, they (under 18-year-olds) can be married.鈥�

Campaigners calling for a ban on child marriage know that legislation alone won鈥檛 be enough to end the practice, deeply ingrained in religious and cultural beliefs, but insist that it鈥檚 a good starting point.

The government argues that cultural norms would override any legislation,听says Melissa Akhir, a senior advocacy officer at the Penang-based Women鈥檚 Centre for Change. 鈥淏ut we think the law must lead the way on rights.鈥�