Earlier this month Pakistan’s Senate struck down an amendment that would have barred marriages between adults and children under 18 years of age, essentially claiming that such an amendment would have been un-Islamic.
“I have … discussed it with religious scholars and they also believe that girls can be married before the age of 18 according to Islam, so these kinds of bills cannot be passed,” Rehman Malik, the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee, said in defense of the decision, according to RT.
Currently the minimum age for marriage in Pakistan for girls is 16 and for boys is 18.
After some backlash, Malik’s spokesperson later released a statement claiming the committee would seek further advice from “representatives of NGOs on Human Rights and Women’s Rights and renowned scholars of the country.”
The bill will be reconsidered after getting opinions of CII and NGOs pic.twitter.com/pTh1xlto5w
— Hira Akbar (@hiraakbar1) October 12, 2017
Judging by what Malik wrote on his own Twitter profile, where he made it clear he believes this issue is a religious matter, it doesn’t seem he has any interest in actually listening to women’s rights experts.
Take a look:
To make matters worse, the Senate’s decision was made on the same day as the United Nations’ International Day of the Girl, according to the editorial board of the Daily Times, an English-language Pakistani newspaper.
“In Pakistan, a regressive mindset still prevails which hinders women from advancing in society,” the board wrote. “The government is providing protection to male chauvinist ideals that undermine the liberty of women over their lives and legitimise countless injustices on them.”
“While women have advanced in Pakistan on many fronts, the government has not facilitated this in any comprehensive way.”
This is what real misogyny and sexism looks like, and it’s rampant in Pakistan, a mostly Muslim nation where 21 percent of young girls are married off before they hit the age of 18, and where the Islamic torture of women and young girls is as common as grass.
And given Pakistan’s sick history — another attempt last year to raise the minimum marriage age failed — it doesn’t appear this nation will be entering the 21st century anytime soon.
H/T MILO