Malaysian MP Says 12-Year-Old Girls Are 'Physically And Spiritually' Ready For Marriage

A member of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is facing calls that he step down from his post in parliament after claiming that rape victims should just marry their rapists so they don't face a "bleak future."

Shabudin Yahaya, of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), was arguing during a session of Malaysia's lower house (Dewan Rakyat) as MPs debated an updated law barring the sexual assault of children. The law didn't include language banning child marriage, which ignited a debate on the floor of the lower house. Opposition MP Siti Mariah Mahmud, of the National Integrity Party (Amanah), suggested that the legal age of marriage for women should be raised from 16 years old to 18 years old.

"In former times, young girls were raised to get married and be mothers," Mariah told local press when asked about her objection to keeping child marriage out of the child sexual assault law. "But now the girls are raised to be independent. If the girl is married off at a young age, she has to depend on one person, which is the husband. And then she has to be submissive. We would like to educate girls to be self determined and to know their role."

Shabudin, a former Shariah Court judge, dismissed the efforts to raise the legal age of marriage. A girl as young as 9 years old should be allowed to marry, he said, because they were already "physically and spiritually" ready. He then decided to expand on the idea, adding that a 12-year-old girl was, physically, no different from an adult.

"Some children aged 12 or 15, their bodies are like 18-year-old women," he told the parliament, according to local media.

When MPs questioned his claims, Shabudin turned back to the sexual assault bill and remarked that there was "nothing wrong" with a young girl marrying her rapist.

"Perhaps, through marriage, they can lead a healthier, better life," he said on the floor of parliament. "And the person who was raped does not necessarily have a bleak future. She will have a husband, at least, and this could serve as a remedy to growing social problems."

He later attempted to walk back on his statements, clarifying that he was only talking about the victims of statutory rape, not forced sexual assault.

"In society's reality, there are many cases of rape that are classified by law as 'statutory rape' but based on common consent," he said in a statement posted to Barisan Nasional's website. "To resolve such problems, families often cover up the shame, do not make police reports and eventually make the decision to marry them."

Critics quickly accused Shabudin of trying to open a backdoor to legalizing rape. Fellow Umno MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan said he read Shabudin's comments with "utter shock and disappointment," in post on his Facebook page.

"It is abhorent [sic] in this 21st century to suggest that a rapist - who should in the first place be prosecuted - has the means to escape legal responsibility simply by marrying his victim," he wrote.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP),  a small Sabah-based Chinese party and member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, called on the coalition to drop its support of Shabudin following his controversial remarks, arguing that his ideas were disrespectful toward woman and an embarrassment to men.

"No one in their right mind would say such a thing," Shim Nyat Yun, the head of the LDP's Central Women division, told local media. "Although MPs have the privilege of legal immunity to discuss matters freely in the Dewan Rakyat, I hope that BN will order Shabudin to retract his statement and make a public apology to the people.

"I also urge BN's top leadership to remove Shabudin, as he will certainly lose defending his Tasek Gelugor seat. No voter with a conscience will continue to support Shabudin and his inhumane view."

Shabudin's comments touched a nerve in Malaysia, where, according to an investigation by Reuters, the vast majority of child sexual assault cases go unsolved. Between 2012 and July of 2016, only 140 out of nearly 13,000 instances of child sexual assault resulted in an indictment.

The United Nations has called on officials in 116 countries to end the practice of child marriages. The UN's initiative has pushed for change in Malaysia, where girls as young as 16 can marry with the permission of a local government official or Shariah Court judge. It's also raised issue with child marriages in Indonesia, where one out of six girls are married before the age of 18, according to UNICEF data.