A lot of moms in Malaysia are seething in anger after reading the latest news on the 11-year-old Thai child bride and her 41-year-old husband.
Che Abdul Karim Che Hamid, father of four and husband to two wives, quietly married an 11-year-old girl in June this year. Many protested the marriage. Still, he justified it.
But what has currently sent everyone over the edge was when he told local media that he had his eye on the child since she was seven years old.
On that note, the man is claiming that most of the villagers already knew of his desire. He says that it only shocked the outside world when news got out.
Marriage to Thai child bride not driven by desire, says man
The solemnizing ceremony with his Thai child bride
“I knew Ayu since she was small because we were neighbors, and I also taught Al-Quran lessons to her… it was then I told myself, ‘One day I will take this girl as my wife,’ and I did so four years later.”
Undeterred by the comments and insults of others, he believes Ayu is his destined partner. He also firmly believes that she is now his responsibility even if he won’t be “touching” her until she is 16.
“After marriage I feel relieved because I can guide her closer to Allah while taking care of her without sinning,” he was quoted saying.
His 11-year-old bride has yet to meet his other two wives. According to him, this was to “protect his wives’ emotions”. He hopes that everyone would stop insulting them, but instead pray for their happiness as he promises to steer his household well.
Why this is so morally wrong on so many levels
As a mother of two daughters with one who is seven years old this year, you cannot even begin to imagine the amount of rage that is going through me right now. What I cannot comprehend is this: How can any man (a father to boot) view a seven-year-old child as a potential wife?
Not a fan of sugar coating things, I’m just going to say it as it is. If he was “willing” to wait for five years before bedding her, then why not use that time to just adopt the girl?
After all, he claims it wasn’t desire that drove him to marry her. Adoption would have allowed him to guide and care for her, without marriage.
Also, along with marriage comes legally-approved sex. It is not wrong to infer that under all his preaching about not having any “desire” for her, that he actually DOES lust after his Thai child bride. And THAT makes me sick to the stomach.
Secondly, if he had wanted her since she was seven years old, then chances are he might have started grooming her since then.
Why else is the poor child “in love” with him, as she reportedly said? Just think of the child for a moment in all her innocence. What would she know if all she had was him? He is everything to her and all that she knows. Can you blame her for being besotted?
What this man has done is he has found a moral, ethical and societal loophole. And he is playing it to his advantage. He is using it to legalise his actions, which, in my opinion, are still morally wrong.
You cannot want a seven-year-old girl for a wife and not be a pedophile. It still doesn’t change the fact that she is a Thai child bride. A CHILD: whether at seven, eleven or even 16, when he says he will finally “touch” her.
A Muslim father starts online petition to ban child marriage
This same outrage also stirred Umran Kadir, a father of three in the UK, to start an online petition calling for the federal government to stop sanctioning the “rape of children”, by banning child marriage.
The petition read:
“It has outraged people of all creeds who possess a moral compass.
“We, being concerned individuals of different religions and ethnicities, insist that you do all in your power to consider on an urgent basis the changes to the laws in Malaysia that currently permit the state-sanctioned rape of children.
“We demand that the government take the unequivocal position that no child below the age of 18 should be permitted to be married, regardless of their faith or gender.
“To permit otherwise is not to permit ‘child marriage’; instead, it is to permit the state-sanctioned rape of children. This has no place in a civilised society and should be criminalized in Malaysia.”
The thing is this isn’t just about Malaysia. It is about child marriages everywhere and it has to stop! All of us play a part.
As at 5.45pm today, the petition has reached over 13,875 signatures.
I have signed. The question is, have you?
Source: The Malay Mail
Read also: 8-year-old child bride dies from internal bleeding after her wedding night
Republished with permission from: theAsianParent Singapore