A delegate at the 2018 PKR national congress for the women’s wing, urged the government to amend the minimum age of marriage to 20 and above, in efforts to curb child marriage.

Selangor delegate Ermeemarianna Saadon, 41, said at a young age, women should be at the ivory towers in pursuit of education instead of taking care of children.

"Conceiving a baby at a young age is also of great concern as there are possible risks when you have a child early in your teen years,” she said when debating the issue on child marriage at the Ideal Convention Centre, Shah Alam, today.

Ermeemarianna added that according to statistics released by the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, there were 1,845 marriages under the age of 18 in the country.

She said 968 of the underage marriages involved non-Muslims while 877 were Muslims.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail who is also Women, Family and Community Development Minister, reportedly said that the government was committed to ending child marriage by raising the minimum age for marriage to 18 from 16, for males and females.

Meanwhile, a delegate from Melaka said the act of restricting wives from working and saving up money for future needs was considered as an abuse against women.

Elizah Asuan Kailani said many women were not aware that such restrictions might not cause physical harm but is a form of emotional abuse.

She said unlike physical abuse, emotional abuse might be hard to recognise as it could be subtle.

“Emotional abuse or verbal violence where the abusers use harsh and insulting words is damaging to a woman’s confidence and self-esteem,” she added.

As such, she said PKR women should play a role in raising awareness among women who are in an abusive relationship, as often times the victims do not see the mistreatment as abusive.

- Bernama