TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jakarta polygamy regulation sparks backlash, renewed calls for abolition
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Illustration of a polygamous relationship. (Shutterstock/File)
A
recent Jakarta gubernatorial decree providing technical guidelines on polygamy for the city’s male civil servants has renewed calls for the practice’s abolition, with critics calling it discriminatory and harmful to women.
Polygamy, a debated but often accepted institution in Islam, is legally regulated through the 1974 Marriage Law.
The gubernatorial decree, which outlines procedures for granting marriage and divorce permits, was issued by acting Jakarta governor Teguh Setyabudi on Jan. 6 and largely reiterates the polygamy provisions of the Marriage Law. Under both, men are legally allowed to marry another wife if their first wife is unable to perform her “responsibilities”, is permanently disabled or ill or unable to bear children after 10 years of marriage.
Jakarta Employment Agency (BKD) head Chaidir said the gubernatorial regulation on marriage, including polygamy, was “not something new” and that it had been issued as part of an effort to bring down the high divorce rate among civil servants.
“[Hopefully] after the issuance of the [decree], there will be no more civil servants who divorce without permission from their institutions and have more than one wife without complying with the prevailing regulations,” Chaidir said in a statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, rights group Amnesty International Indonesia said the decree ran counter to the principles of gender equality and human rights and violated two international rights treaties that Indonesia had ratified, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
“Both international human rights treaties emphasize that polygamy is a form of discrimination against women because it creates inequality in marital relations,” said Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid in a Friday statement, adding that polygamy should be abolished in the country.
