Our Children Will Be Ashamed Of Us And They’ll Be Right, PN MP Warns After Child Marriages Revealed
Nationalist MP Justin Schembri has strongly called out the existence of child marriages in Malta as a worrying sign for the future.
“This isn’t the Malta we want to live in,” Schembri said. “This isn’t Malta, no matter what they may say. You don’t need to be wise to realise this, but it seems that everyone is silent or scared when faced with this national junglification.”
“Our country has changed in a way no Maltese people wanted it to change but we’re so blind that we aren’t realising that someday our children will be ashamed of us, and they will be right.”
“Those who lead the nation know this too but they’re doing nothing about this tragedy even if they have the power. It’s so sad.”
Earlier this week, Maltese-Arab author Walid Nabham warned that child marriages and underage births within Syrian communities are happening under the authorities’ very noses.
“In my street, girls aged 14 and 15 have been married! I thought of contacting the media to ask them, who is marrying these children? It can’t be in the Mosque as the legal age in Islam is 18.”
He explained that not only are the girls married off young, but go on to produce multiple children within a short timeframe.
Maltese author Walid Nabham
“The girl in my street today has three children, even though she herself is still a child. I think the state needs to open its eyes well to see what’s happening.”
Following Nabham’s statement, a citizen told Lovin Malta that they had personally been invited to a child wedding in Malta.
“Child marriages are a well-known secret, everyone knows they happen, but for some reason, the authorities don’t want to do anything about it,” they said under condition of anonymity as they feared reprisals from within the community.
“Once I was invited to a wedding, I didn’t even know she was underage… and when I found out I left immediately. And this isn’t my experience only,” they confessed.
“For some reason, the authorities either don’t want to investigate, or they simply do not care.”
Cover photo: Left: Stock image, Right: PN MP Justin Schembri
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