Peer-reviewed article
Child Marriage in a Village in West Java (Indonesia): Compromises between Legal Obligations and Religious Concerns
Mies Grijns, Hoko Horii ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines why child marriage persists in Indonesia despite government policies to end it. Researchers found that laws against child marriage face resistance from conservative religious views, and that judges often compromise between state law and local customs. The tension centres on competing values between progressive legal standards and traditional religious concerns in Indonesian society.
Key points
- Law-making in Indonesian family law involves ongoing conflict between progressive and conservative ideas
- Current family law contains internal friction with human rights laws regarding child marriage
- Judges use their discretion to achieve compromises between state laws and local norms
- State law is creatively interpreted and applied differently at village level
- Religious concerns of conservative Muslims form a formidable obstacle to ending child marriage
Limitations
This study describes the legal system and resistance to child marriage laws but does not quantify prevalence rates, evaluate specific interventions to reduce child marriage, or examine the actual lived experiences and outcomes for children in these marriages.
Abstract
Abstract This article addresses the dilemmas and compromises in legal practice around the issue of child marriage in Indonesia. Although the government set development goals that include ending child marriage and complying with human rights standard, it is facing considerable resistance. We researched the state legal system and law in practice to understand this resistance, finding that: (1) law-making in family law involves conflict between progressive and conservative ideas; (2) consequently there is friction within current family law and laws regarding human rights; (3) judges use their discretion to achieve compromises between state laws and local norms; and (4) state law is creatively interpreted and applied at village level. The resistance at all these levels, arising from the religious concerns of conservative Muslims in a rapidly modernizing Indonesian society, is a formidable obstacle for the government to achieve its development goals. Adolescent sexuality is at the heart of these tensions.