Egyptian Member of Parliament and Head of the Defense and National Security Committee in the House of Representatives Kamal Amer has proposed a bill to criminalize child marriage, Youm7 reports. Parliament reportedly began discussing Amer’s proposed bill last Sunday. The 14-clause bill seeks to not only criminalize child marriage, but also to incentivize family planning in order to address Egypt’s overpopulation crisis. The bill defines ‘ideal families’ as families that constitute of four members or less—heterosexual parents and two children, according to Al Bawaba News. The sixth clause of the bill defines child marriage in accordance with Egyptian law, which sets the minimum legal age of marriage at 18 for both genders. If passed, anyone involved in promoting, aiding, abetting or arranging a child marriage will face a prison sentence and a fine of up to EGP 10,000. The bill also seeks to impose a fine on employers of children workers who operate outside the state’s guidelines. Under Amer’s bills, child labour would be punishable by a fine of up to 10,000 EGP or double that amount for repeat offenders. Although primarily intended to tackle overpopulation, Amer told Ala Bawaba News…
