LONDON – Britain is sabotaging girls’ futures and condoning child sex abuse by failing to scrap an “anachronistic” law allowing child marriage, a lawmaker told parliament on Tuesday as she presented a bill to criminalize marriage under 18.
Pauline Latham said retaining the current law, which allows marriage at 16 with parental consent, also undermined Britain’s global efforts to end child marriage in developing countries.
She said the need to reform the law was highlighted in a TV drama last week based on the “shocking” case of Banaz Mahmod, who was murdered in a so-called honor killing after being pushed into an abusive marriage as a teenager.
The bill, which has cross-party support, would make it an offense to encourage or assist a minor to marry. Penalties of up to seven years in prison have been suggested. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
