Dear MEL
Topic Readers,
Female
Islamic clerics in Indonesia issue rare child marriage fatwa
The Republic
of Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world in terms of population.
Of the 260 million Indonesians, nearly 90% are Muslims, the world’s largest
Muslim country.
It is also
one of the top ten countries with the highest absolute numbers of child brides:
1,408,000 women aged 20 to 24 were married before the age of 18, the nation’s
legal age, or one in every seven girls. In some rural areas, the child marriage
is estimated to go over 30%. It’s mainly because of the cultural traditions but
other factors drive the practice, such as poverty, economic dependency,
financial incentives and dowry practices, as well as a lack of access to
education and health services.
Now female
Islamic clerics gathered and issued an Islamic religious decree, urging the
government to raise the minimum legal age from the current 16 to 18 for women
to marry. Whether the government or the congress bring it to the discussion table
is still uncertain, but the sheer number of female Muslims can’t be easily ignored.
Enjoy reading
and learning about the problem of child marriage.
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