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ocal officials involved before and during the recent wedding of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka have confirmed the president'€™s daughter-in-law Selvi Ananda converted to Islam prior to becoming a new member of the First Family.

Gibran married Selvi, his long-time girlfriend, on Thursday in the Central Java city of Surakarta, where his father served as mayor from 2005 to 2012. Their wedding reception, held on the same day, was carried out in five different sessions to accommodate thousands of guests, which included local residents, politicians and other VIP guests.

Head of the Banjarsari Religious Affairs Office (KUA), Muktaroji, who served as penghulu (wedding-vow administrator) for the couple'€™s ijab kabul (wedding vow) ceremony, said Selvi had appointed him as guardian for the wedding, as her father, a devout Catholic, was unable to take part in the Islamic wedding ceremony.

'€œThe religion of Selvi'€™s father is different to hers so she needed to appoint a wali hakim [judge guardian] for her wedding. As the penghulu, I was appointed as her guardian,'€ Muktaroji said on Saturday.

According to Islamic law, a Muslim woman must not give herself in marriage without approval from her male guardian. A non-Muslim, however, is not allowed to be the guardian for a Muslim bride, even though she is his own daughter.

Muktaroji said he had learned that Selvi had converted to Islam after examining the documents submitted by the couple prior to their wedding.

Selvi, according to Muktaroji, put '€œIslam'€ in the religion column of her ID card, while her father Didit Supriyadi and mother Sri Partini put '€œCatholic'€.

To convert to Islam, non-Muslims must pronounce the syahadat (creed) as a sign that they acknowledge Islamic teachings. Muktaroji said Selvi had made such a pronouncement on Feb. 20 at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta.

Separately, the head of the neighborhood unit in Pasar Kliwon, Surakarta, where Selvi is registered as a resident, Andi, said Selvi had earlier requested a cover letter from him, as a part of the required paperwork for her religious conversion. '€œI signed a cover letter for her wedding. The letter was for religious conversion purposes, maybe [she] converted to the religion of her husband,'€ he said.

Head of Pasar Kliwon KUA, Arbain Basyar, also acknowledged that Selvi was a mualaf (convert).

'€œI don'€™t know what her religion was, but her wedding application states that she is a Muslim,'€ he said.

The chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council'€™s (MUI) Surakarta chapter Zainal Arifin Adnan, meanwhile, said there was nothing wrong with Selvi'€™s recent decision to convert to Islam. He also said the couple'€™s marriage was legal, as it had been carried out in accordance with Islamic rules, including the appointment of a judge guardian for Selvi.

The media-shy Gibran has kept his relationship with Selvi private, despite dating her for six years. They met in 2009 when Gibran was a jury member at a pageant where Selvi was a finalist. Selvi emerged as winner of the pageant and Gibran'€™s mother, current First Lady Iriana Widodo, placed the crown on her head.