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Early marriage campaign gains ground
Early marriage: Bridegroom Muhammad Alvin Faiz (right), 17, puts a ring on the finger of his bride, Larissa Chou, during their recent marriage ceremony
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span class="inline inline-center">Early marriage: Bridegroom Muhammad Alvin Faiz (right), 17, puts a ring on the finger of his bride, Larissa Chou, during their recent marriage ceremony. The issue of teenage marriages has lately become a hot topic in Indonesia as several religious organizations support early marriages while activists oppose them.(Courtesy of kapanlagi.com/instagram.com/Alvin_411)
The hashtag #NikahMuda (#MarriedYoung) recently went viral after Muhammad Alvin Faiz, the 17-year-old son of popular Islamic preacher Arifin Ilham, married a 20-year-old named Larissa Chou earlier this month.
Alvin, who has a strong social media presence with more than 324,000 Instagram followers, uploaded photos of his Islamic wedding to his account.
“Because girls don’t need romantic words or cheesy flirting. They just need certainty #NikahMuda,” he said in the caption of a photo where he signed his marriage certificate, which amassed 64,650 likes.
The hashtag comes amid an intensifying campaign promoting early marriage by conservative Muslims on social media in recent months. An online movement calling itself Indonesia Tanpa Pacaran (Indonesia Without Dating) has been spreading pictures asking young Muslims to skip dating and get married instead.
The trend has raised concerns that many young Indonesians will fail to see the risks of early marriage, which remains one of the most daunting youth and reproductive health problems in the country, as pregnant girls run a variety of health risks including potentially lethal pregnancy-related complications.
The UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) places Indonesia 37th on a list tallying global child marriage rates, the second-highest in Southeast Asia behind Cambodia.
A report published in November last year by international children’s rights organization Plan International revealed that Indonesia continued to have a high rate of child marriage as a result of long-standing community support for such practices.
National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) head Surya Chandra Surapaty said the campaign jeopardized the government’s plan to control population and create a prosperous society.
“We are recommending a minimum marriage age of 21-years-old because that’s when someone is mature, both sexually and mentally. But before that, they are still considered kids, and thus need enough nutrition and education,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Alvin is younger than the marriageable age set by the existing Marriage Law, which was challenged by children’s and women’s activists at the Constitutional Court last year in their attempt to raise the marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18. The court, however, rejected their petition, dealing a blow to efforts to protect children.
Alvin’s father wrote on his Facebook page that he allowed his son to marry despite his young age to prevent him from committing adultery.
Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioner Maria Ulfa Anshor criticized Arifin, saying that even in Islam, early marriage was not recommended.
“People often simplify the concept of being ready [to get married] as baligh, or ready physically, meaning that boys who experience wet dreams or girls who have started their periods are considered mature. But the concept of akil, which means capable of thinking maturely and taking decisions, is often forgotten”.
Therefore, Islam requires someone to be ready not only physically, but also psychologically, economically and socially, she said.
“The hadith [the Prophet’s saying] on that is very clear”.
Maria lambasted Alvin’s parents for allowing him to get married at such a young age. “The law on child protection says that children are those under 18 and it also says that parents are obligated to protect their children from child marriage”.
Gerindra Party lawmaker Rahayu Saraswati lamented the fact that the campaign for early marriage was carried out by a well-known public figure, whose actions can be easily followed by tens of thousands of people.
“If they do it in the name of tradition, then they should not expose it on social media, so that the younger generation is not indoctrinated to do the same,” she said.
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