The Pseudo-Protection: Law, Religion, and Child Marriage Dispensations in Indonesian Religious Courts

This study looks at how judges in Indonesia's Religious Courts justify granting marriage dispensations, which allow children below the legal marriage age to marry. Dispensations are officially meant to protect children's well-being, but the study asks whose interests are actually put first. It analyses how judges use the idea of maṣlaḥah (public interest) in their reasoning. The author describes a pattern called 'pseudo-protection', in which claims of child protection are mixed with concerns about family honor and social stigma.

Key points

• Marriage dispensations in Indonesia's Religious Courts are officially intended to protect children's well-being.
• Judicial decisions are shaped by three recurring dimensions: religious doctrine, moral considerations, and statutory legality.
• The study identifies 'pseudo-protection', where child protection claims are intertwined with family honor and social stigma in justifying dispensations.
• The study contributes to discussion of how child protection claims are constructed, legitimized and applied in religiously informed legal systems.

Limitations

Only the abstract is available, so the number of cases, the courts covered, the time period and the methods are not known. It does not measure outcomes for children who married under a dispensation.