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SINGAPORE: The minimum age of marriage for Muslims in Singapore could be raised following an ongoing study among the community here.
Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs Dr Yaacob Ibrahim said this is part of a long-term approach to tackle the problem of marriages involving minors which are twice as likely to end in divorce compared to other marriages.

Currently, under the Administration of Muslim Law Act (AMLA), the minimum age is set at 16 years for a Muslim bride and groom.

This is lower than the minimum age of 18 years set under the Women's Charter, which applies to all non-Muslims.

Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Dr Yaacob said there has been a 25 percent drop in the number of minor Muslim brides and grooms in the last two years following efforts to reduce the divorce rate in the community.

Between 2004 and 2006, the number of minor brides dropped from 564 to 422, while the number of grooms dropped from 159 to 118.

However, Dr Yaacob said the challenges remain, and continued efforts are needed to prevent such issues from becoming acute and entrenched.

Dr Yaacob said, "Our community and leaders have come together to make this happen. However, challenges remain – marriages involving minors are twice as likely to end up in divorce when compared to other marriages. Thus, while we should continue extending our support to the married minors in our community, we need to have a long-term approach to prevent such issues from getting acute and entrenched."

One programme is a premarital counselling programme piloted for Muslim couples under 21 years old.

Following counselling, 17 percent of 333 couples decided not to proceed with marriage for the time being.

As for those who do decide to proceed, the PPIS-Jurong Family Service Centre and the Association for Muslim Professionals will be managing two centres dedicated to supporting them through their marriage.

These centres will be operational in the second quarter of this year.

Other ongoing efforts include programmes which tackle the issues of teenage sexuality and marriages involving minors, such as the NURteensLINE and the NUR Drop-in Centres set up in December 2005.

Funded by the ComCare Social Support Projects Fund, NURteensLINE has since received more than 1,000 calls and SMS, with a third of the calls centering on sexuality issues and parent-teen relationships.

Dr Yaacob said another successful programme is SEKSa, a collaborative effort between the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Sports and MediaCorp's Suria which has promoted awareness within the community on teenage issues.

The TV series, which also coaches parents on how to bond and broach sensitive topics with their children, is the top info-ed programme on the Malay language television channel.

- CNA/so