Nurfika Osman – Linda Amalia Sari, state minister for women's empowerment and child protection, acknowledged on Monday that the Law on Marriage and nuptials under Islamic law discriminated against women, but that legislative reforms would require broad discussion given the potential to create conflict.

"Our country still holds strong social and cultural prejudices against women," the new minister told the Jakarta Globe on the sidelines of a workshop in Jakarta on the elimination of discrimination against women. "This kind of mindset, shared by many people, including officials, is the barrier."

Linda said, however, that "deep and comprehensive analysis is needed to change the law and we need to communicate this with many parties." "It's not as simple as just changing any law, we have to consider many things."

Activists say the laws contain a number of provisions that discriminate against women, including the marriage of minors to men and provisions on polygamy allowing men to take as many as four wives.

Linda said wholesale revisions or amendments to the Marriage Law, enacted in 1974, could cause conflict in society, adding that the law had not been amended due to social and cultural prejudices.

"The law is discriminative and we are pushing for a ministerial decree to save women," she said. "At least a ministerial decree will fix the discriminating laws."

Nasaruddin Umar, the director general for mass guidance on Islam at the Religious Affairs Ministry, also conceded that Islamic law governing marriage for women was not serving their interests.

He said that the ministry was currently drafting a law for the Religious Court on Marriage, which will deal with marriage to minors and other issues. "We hope the law will decrease the number of minor marriages and the existing gender gap," Umar said.

He said that the ministry has commanded marriage registry offices (KUA) in the country to verify couples' information before permitting unions.

"We have asked them to look at such things as age because marrying minors is wrong and brings a gender gap [based on the power of the senior partner – the male] in the marriage," Umar said, adding that the ministry has given its parameters to KUA officials.