Legislating Social Change in an Islamic Society-Indonesia's Marriage Law

Abstract

In 1974 Indonesia, the world's most populace Islamic country, passed a National Marriage Act,1 the first legislative revision of the country's marriage and divorce law. Prior to the passage of the law, the marriage and divorce of Indonesia's majority Muslim population was governed exclusively by the unamended rules of Islamic law. Although a statute passed in 1946 required registration of marriages, reconciliations, and divorces, prior to 1974 there had been no legislative interference with the substance of Islamic marriage rules. Among the government's purposes in proposing marriage legislation were limiting arbitrary divorce and polygamy and eliminating or reducing child marriage.2 To accomplish those objectives the Act restricted a Muslim husband's power unilaterally to repudiate his wife or to take a second wife by requiring judicial approval and statutory grounds for both divorce and polygamy. The Act also required that marriage be based on the consent of the parties, that persons marrying under the age of 21 have parental consent to marry, and imposed a minimum marriage age of 16 for girls and 19 for boys.