Indonesia raises minimum age for brides to 19 in bid to end child marriage

One in four girls in Indonesia is married before they turn 18, according to a 2016 report by the country’s statistics agency and Unicef

Girls were previously allowed to get married at 16, or younger – with no minimum age – if their parents requested it

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A 10-year-old actress dons a wedding gown at an event organised by Amnesty International to denounce child marriage. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:03pm, 17 Sep 2019Updated: 12:36pm, 18 Sep 2019

Indonesia’s parliament has revised the country’s marriage law to lift the minimum age at which women can marry by three years to 19, a move welcomed by campaigners as a step towards curbing child marriage in the world’s biggest Muslim majority-country.

All factions in parliament agreed the revision at a plenary session on Monday, according to a statement on its website.

Indonesia is among the 10 countries in the world with the highest number of child brides, according to campaign group Girls Not Brides.

One in four girls in Indonesia is married before they turn 18, according to a 2016 report by Indonesia’s Statistics Agency and the United Nations children’s fund Unicef.

An Indonesian couple are wed during a mass wedding in Jakarta in 2005. Photo: AP

“Society still encourages girls to get married in their teenage years, otherwise they will be considered spinsters,” said Masruchah of the National Commission on Violence Against Women.

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