Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Activists with women's advocacy groups have called on the government to clarify stipulations on the minimum age for women to marry, saying different clauses in two existing laws have led to confusion.
The 1974 Marriage Law stipulates that the minimum age for a woman to marry is 16 years old. However, the 2002 Child Protection Law states anyone below the age of 18 is considered a minor.
The arguments on this issue relate to the controversy surrounding the marriage of Garut Regent Aceng Fikri, 40, to a 17-year-old girl identified as FO in July in an unregistered Islamic nuptial ceremony.
Aceng divorced the teenager via text message four days after their marriage, saying he was disappointed to learn that FO was not a virgin as he had expected.
Asnifriyanti Damanik from the Legal Aid Institute of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK) told a discussion on Wednesday that the debate on the minimum age for women to marry should have already been settled, saying that people should abide by the latest legislation.
"We should use the new provision in the 2002 law, not the one in the 1974 law," she said, calling for revision of the 1974 Marriage Law.
She later lamented that many people were unaware of the two laws and hid behind religion to justify child marriage as well as unregistered marriages.
According to her, child marriages were mostly unregistered because the local religious affairs office could only validate marriages if the bride had reached the minimum age of 16 as stipulated in the 1974 law. "Many officials know about this, but they turn a blind eye," she said.
A 2012 survey by the Empowerment of Female Heads of Households Program (Pekka) shows that nearly 25 percent of marriages in 111 villages in 17 provinces in 2012 were unregistered.
Around 50 percent of marriages were unregistered in East Nusa Tenggara, 54 percent in West Nusa Tenggara and 78 percent in Banten. Women's activists suspect that the brides in those unregistered marriages are mostly minors.
Kustini of the Religious Affairs Ministry's research and development division stated that officials could not simply refuse to register marriages if the bride was still a minor. "Registering marriages is important. Imposing sanctions is essential for those who fail to register their marriages," Asnifriyanti added.
Andy Yentriyani of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) said that the state was responsible for ensuring the rights of women and children. "Child marriage violates the rights of children to grow up," she said. "It is against our Constitution."
Machasin, the head of the ministry's research and development division, argued that society needed more "social movements to raise awareness instead", saying that the problem was rooted in a lack of education and economic factors. He added that the 1974 Marriage Law was actually "good enough, even though it still has loopholes".