‘Marriage at early age prevents girls going wayward’: UP cleric on proposal to raise marriageable age to 21

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will take up the issue of the Central government’s proposal to raise the marriageable age of girls to 21 years, board member Maulana Kalbe Jawad said on Friday.

In an exclusive interview with Times Now, the Uttar Pradesh cleric has remarked that the marriage of girls at an early age prevents chances of them going ‘wayward’. “If marriageable age gets increased to 21 years, it’ll increase the tension of parents since they’ll have to keep an eye on them and protect them for three more years,” he said.

Citing the example of his own paternal aunt who was married off at an early age of 14 years, Maulana Jawad went on to say that the health and childbearing capacity of younger girls at an early age is no hindrance in marriage.