Unofficial Marriage in Indonesia

This is an issue I hadn’t heard of before. I wonder in how many countries it is a problem.

In Indonesia, there are two types of marriages. The first is a marriage that is regulated by the government. The second is an “unofficial” marriage (“nikah siri”) that is regulated by Islamic law. Nikah siri is usually held in front of a Muslim cleric. Islamic law requires that witnesses be present, but the witness requirement is bypassed frequently, meaning that nikah siri is usually done in secret and without witnesses present.

In 1974, the Indonesian government passed a law recognizing nikah siri under governmental law. The purpose of the law was to facilitate marriage for the poorest citizens because the cost of obtaining an “official” governmental marriage was deemed too high (currently the cost is US $3.50). However, the regulation of the unofficial marriage is done under Islamic law, meaning that “recognizing” it does not guarantee the rights that there would be if the marriage was done under governmental law.

This has caused many problems for women. For one, it leads to polygamy and adultery (by the husbands of course). Evarisan, the head of the Semarang Legal Resource Center for Gender Justice and Human Rights, says that “[t]he 1974 Marriage Law has enabled men to engage in nikah siri despite the fact such marriages ignore the rights of wives and children.” Also, “[m]any men have misused and taken advantage of nikah siri. They have legalized adultery on the pretext of religious law.” And “most [men] prefer to perform nikah siri. They don’t want to proclaim their marriage openly.”

Now, legislators are trying to pass a bill that will eliminate the recognition of nikah siri by the government and will actually criminalize nikah siri. Evarisan says that the law needs to be passed to protect women’s rights.

Think what the situation would be in the United States if the rights of the wife and husband in a marriage differed according to the church (if there is one) under which they were performed. But that is essentially what religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage want to have happen. They want to impose on everyone the rules of their religion, whether or not those rules are the same desired by people in other religions. If a church wants to perform a marriage ceremony, let it do so. But the law and regulation of marriages need to be uniform and without input from a church.