When a young girl is married off, there’s no denying it; her childhood ends and injustice begins. Not only is deprived of further opportunities for education, she is robbed of her innocence and the right to achieve her full potential.

While the international media was still abuzz over a high profile case involving Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is charged with corruption and criminal breach of trust, the country once again received global attention for its problem of child brides.

Last week, Malaysia considered outlawing child marriage, a contentious issue in the Muslim-majority nation, without success. Instead, an MP said nine-year-old girls are “physically and spiritually ready for marriage.”

In Kyrgyzstan, a young woman is abducted roughly every 40 minutes. ‘Ala kachuu’ is the name for the tradition dating from nomadic times. The old custom is becoming more and more common. Women are being kidnapped and forced to marry.

Child marriage impedes a girl’s education and fosters violence. It must be eradicated, says Monika Michell from the women’s rights organization Terre des Femmes.

Her family wanted to sell her as a bride. An Iranian film director saved her by breaking the main rule of documentary filmmaking: do not interfere. The story became one of the best documentaries of the year, “Sonita.”

A girl attends a mass prayer during Eid al-Adha festival in Kalitengah village, on the slopes of volcano Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta October 26, 2012. © Reuters

Child marriage is still legal in Indonesia. It sounds provocative and cannot be denied. That it is legal can be seen clearly when the Constitutional Court declined suit against child marriage filed by women and children rights activist in June 2015.