The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/28/2009 10:09 PM
Early marriages -- marital unions between women under age 20 and their peers or older men -- should be considered a crime against humanity due to the risk it poses to their wellbeing, a National Commission for Child Protection officer proposed on Wednesday.
"No matter how you look at it, there's nothing positive about it," Commission secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Sirait added the commission sought to convene ulema and scholars from other religions to educate the general population, particularly rural inhabitants, of the dangers it poses for young women.
"Women who marry before age 20 are 58.5 percent more likely to contract cervical cancer," obstetrician and gynecologist Rudy Irwin stated, adding the odds of cervical cancer in women are also affected by promiscuous behavior.
Each year around 500,000 Indonesian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, half of whom do not survive, Irwin said.
"There are currently 2.2 million women suffering from cervical cancer," he said.
The current legal marrying age in Indonesia is 16 for women and 19 for men. (amr)
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