Egypt MP: Marriage age for girls should be lowered

An Egyptian MP has sparked anger after calling for the marital age of girls in the country to be lowered from 18 to 16.

Ahmed Samih drafted the proposed law stating that it will “help” girls and will be in accordance with Sharia law, according to Al-Ahram.

“Statistics show that 80 per cent of girls aged 16 in rural and densely populated urban districts marry with parental consent, even though they are aware that this marriage is illegal,” he explained.

Read: MTV bids for ‘social change’ by tackling child marriage in Egypt

However lowering the age could cause more damage to girls forced into marriage without any choice under pressure from their families.

Samih faced a backlash from fellow MPs who labelled his proposal as “regressive”. MP Margret Azer blasted the draft law saying that the government should “stand against this trend” of young marriages rather than legalising it.

“The 45-member parliamentary bloc titled Egypt’s Bloc of Female MPs described Samih’s draft law as ‘a disaster’,” Al-Ahram wrote.