Malaysian mothers are being pressed into acting as “personal debt collectors” as fathers refuse or fail to pay child maintenance, a study published this week has found, with weak enforcement in the country’s sharia courts identified as an aggravating factor.
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The 2024 Telenisa Report by women’s rights group SIS Forum, released on Tuesday, is based on findings from cases handled by its free legal aid clinic throughout last year, which largely helps low-income Muslim women seeking advice on divorce, maintenance, custody and violence.
The latest study, the ninth edition since 2016, found that 42 per cent of cases were related to child support, with half of them caused by fathers refusing to pay child maintenance and not complying with court orders.
“The struggles we see at Telenisa every year show one thing clearly: women and children continue to pay the price of weak enforcement of maintenance and gaps in the justice system,” group executive director Rozana Isa said.
“Without reforms – like a child support agency and better legal aid – too many families will remain trapped in cycles of poverty and injustice.”
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Latest available statistics from the government recorded more than 57,000 divorces in the country in 2023, with over three-quarters coming from the Malay Muslim community.
While the rate declined from previous years, it is in tandem with the drop in the number of marriages during the same period.