Another week, another disturbing news story about child marriage coming out of South Sulawesi Province — the only difference this time being that the groom is actually of age.
Today, a 21-year-old man identified as Erwin is set to marry his 12-year-old girlfriend, identified by her initials RSR. The couple from Sinjai Regency is going ahead with their marriage even though the local Religious Affairs Office (KUA), the only body with the power to approve state-sanctioned marriages, rejected their marriage request for the obvious marriage law violation.
“RSR is still too young. So this violates Article 7 Point 1 of Law no. 1/1974 on Marriage,” said local official Muhammad Azharuddin, as quoted by CNN Indonesia today, adding that Sinjai officials will do everything in their power to stop the marriage.
RSR’s father, Sinar, said the marriage will take place regardless to preserve good relations between the families of the couple, who are actually distant cousins.
“This is for traditional reasons, to avoid shame [and to preserve] the family’s good name,” he said.
Sinar added that Erwin and RSR have been dating for an unspecified period of time and that child marriage is a tradition within the family.
Last month, a 15-year-old and a 14-year-old from South Sulawesi received legal dispensation from the local religious court to marry after their initial marriage request was denied by KUA. In reaction to the shocking case, President Joko Widodo has agreed to sign a regulation raising the minimum age for marriage and effectively end child marriage. While the regulation hasn’t been signed yet, a 16 and 14-year-old from South Sulawesi, who are cousins, last week married without KUA’s blessing.
The current legal age of marriage in Indonesia is 19 years old for men and 16 years old for women. However, the country’s 1974 Law on Marriage also includes a major loophole to this requirement which allows marriages to still be considered legal if they are done “in accordance” with religious belief, known as nikah siri. As such, underage marriages that have been sanctified by religious courts or officials must still be officially recognized by the government — if not, many are satisfied with merely fulfilling religious or traditional requirements for marriage.
In April of last year, Indonesian female Muslim clerics issued an unprecedented fatwa (edict) declaring child marriage to be harmful as it is a large contributor to Indonesia’s high maternal mortality rate. Furthermore, they cited studies that many Indonesian child brides could not continue their studies once wed and half their marriages ended in divorce in addition to child marriage increasing the risks of exploitation, sexual violence, and domestic abuse.
Even so, stories about children getting married continued to take place and go viral on social media. Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Deputy Minister Lenny Rosalin said that child marriage in Indonesia is at “emergency levels” as, based on UNICEF data, Indonesia ranks seventh in the world and the second highest in Southeast Asia in terms of the overall percentage of marriages in which at least one of the spouses is under 18 years old. According to government census data, 17% of all Indonesian girls married in 2016 were under 18.
Update: According to BBC Indonesia, the two families have cancelled the wedding plans because no religious official dared to marry Erwin and RSR and break the law.
