The SIRI Marriage

A legitimate Marriage in Indonesia is conducted according to the religion of the couple concerned,   and registered according to the national law.

Basically, a man can only have one wife, and a woman can only have one husband.
However, a man can request the Court of Law to allow him to marry more than one woman, if his existing wife gave her approval.

In spite of the above stipulations of the Marriage Law No. 1/1974, some Muslim men have married women based on the Islamic Law but do not register the marriage with with the marriage registrar office. Such kind of marriage is called the SIRI marriage.

According to Kompas, women activists have protested against SIRI marriage because it does not provide legal protection to women. They proposed that men who practiced SIRI Marriage should be treated as criminals, and punnished by the Court of Law. This proposal was supported by the Chief of the Supreme Court Harifin A. Tumpa, and the Chief of the Constitutional Court Mahfud MD.

Considering the above, I hope that the law enforcement agencies would make more serious efforts to prevent the SIRI Marriage.

Photo : Courtesy of Kompas

Rhoma Irama & Marriage

For more than 35 years, Rhoma Irama has been very popularly known in Indonesia as a Malayan Dangdut singer and movie actor.

According to Kapanlagi, this controversial man was born in Tasikmalaya, West Java, on 11 December 1946, was legitimately married based on Marriage Law No.1/1974, but at the same time practiced Sirri i.e a marriage based on the Islamic Law, with several other women.

On Tuesday (14 April) evening, Rhoma Irama appeared as guest speaker in ANTV’s Talk Show 4 LAWAN 1 (4 Against 1), hosted by four ladies i.e Lula Kamal, Meisya Siregar, Fira Basuki and Rahma Aulia.
Various topics were discussed, but the most interesting part was when they discussed about Rhoma's opinion on Marriage. In this case he admitted that he led a polygamous life, but he refused to answer when the ladies asked him how many wives he has today.
He said that Marriage, Divorce and Polygamy are determined by God, and Polygamy does not bring disgrace to women, as a matter of fact it bring honor to women. He explained that before Islam came to this world, men did not honor women. He gave an example that at those times, holy men/kings/ leaders in many countries of the world have many wives, not just tens but also hundreds and even thousands, thus there is no limitation at all.
After Islam came to this world, a man is limited to have not more than 4 wives, on the condition that he must be capable to treat his wives fairly, otherwise he should only have 1 wife.

Further, he said that he sympathize with Syekh Puji, i.e. a 43 years old man who married Ulfa, a 12 years old girl according to Sirri. He said that Syekh Puji is a victim of our society’s unfair treatment. Because Rhoma thinks that Syekh Puji’s marriage was legitimate according to the Islamic Law which defined that an adult female as one who has menstruates, and since Ulfa has already menstruate, therefore their marriage has been legitimate according to Islamic Law.

Furthermore, he said that Sirri Marriage would prevent men from committing adultery.

Rhoma Irama’s above opinion is contradictory to our country’s Marriage Law i.e. a female should be at least 16 to get married; and a married man can only take another wife if his first wife permit him to do so. And as a public figure his words could mislead other people especially his fans into thinking that he is right.
In order to avoid confusion, the government should therefore clarify this by always socializing the principles adopted by our National Marriage Law.

Syekh Puji's case

For many years, our news media has been reporting about cases of Pedophiles i.e. matured men who love to have sex with children under the age of 16 years.

The latest of such case involved a 66 years old Australian English Teacher Alfred Charles Barnet who was arrested by the Police in Depok, West Java, last February. According to Viva News, Barnett was charged for Sodomizing 9 under aged children in Indonesia. Considering that he was also wanted for similar crime in his country, the Police has extradited him to Australia.

Currently, our media has been reporting a case that took place in Semarang, Central Java, about a 43 years old man Syekh Puji (above photo) who married a 12 years old girl Ulfa on August 2008, based on Islamic way called SIRI. This is controversial, because according our Marriage Law No. 1 year 1974, a girl can only be married at the minimum age of 16 by a man who is at least 19. Due to this fact, Surya reported that last Friday, the Semarang Police has summoned and questioned Syekh Puji for 13 hours. The Police accused Syekh Puji of violating a.o the Children Protection Law Articles 82 & 88, and the Criminal Law Article 290, which can be punished for a maximum 5 years imprisonment.
This Police action was welcomed by the Central Java office of the Indonesian Moslem Ulema Council (MUI) & the National Human Rights Committee (Komnas HAM).

I am very glad that the Police have finally take action on this case, that way other people would know that waht Syekh Puji did was against the national laws, thereby preventing similar cases from happening again in the future.

Pic: Doktertomi