Marriage law needs revision, says minister Khofifah
Marriage law needs revision, says minister Khofifah
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for Women's Empowerment Khofifah
Indar Parawansa said her office was proposing revisions to the
1974 marriage law to ensure greater respect for women's rights
and raise the minimum marriageable age to 20 years of age.
The proposal to raise of the marriageable age is designed to
lower the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in this
country.
According to Khofifah, maternal mortality had reached 390 per
100,000 births, while the infant mortality rate was around 46 per
1,000 births.
"We see a strong correlation between young parents and the
mortality rate. Marrying at such a young age is damaging to
women's reproductive health," she said.
The law stipulates that the minimum permitted marriageable age
for a man is 19 while for women it is 16.
Women who get married before they are 20, Khofifah argued, are
five times more at risk as they are biologically immature.
"In many regions, 16 year-old girls or below have married. I
even found in West Nusa Tenggara, a 16 year-old girl already
married three times!" Khofifah, who also chairs the National
Family Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN), remarked.
Besides lowering the mortality rate, increasing the age limit
will improve the quality of human resources.
"Financially and psychologically, both men and women aren't
ready to get married at that age. I mean, they haven't even
graduated from high school yet," she said.
Khofifah said the draft revisions of Law No. 1/1974 have been
submitted to the Minister of Religious Affairs so that it can be
discussed by the House of Representatives,
Another significant change being sought is a revision of the
definition of the woman's role in the household so as to ensure
better equality.
Khofifah contended that the law must ensure that the wife's
rights and obligations are addressed in the same way as those of
the husband.
While article 31 section three of the law states that the wife
has equal rights with her husband, section three states that "the
husband is the head of the family and the wife is the housewife."
On a related subject, Khofifah said discussions were still
continuing on the possibility of scrapping Government Regulation
No. 10/1983 which bans polygamy for civil servants.
She said if the regulation were to be revoked, it would be so
as to eliminate discrimination and realize gender equality.
"Imagine a female civil servant who happens to be a second
wife, she will lose her job. While a man who has more than one
wife will only have an administrative sanction imposed," Khofifah
said.(hdn)