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Since the replies to this are still justifying the act of child marriage itself with various excuses, I want to elaborate on why I think its highly unethical and dangerous for an underage to be thrown into the social standing that is marriage. https://twitter.com/disdias/status/1263827612809326595
The concept of marriage in conventional terms is the legal union of 2 (or more) persons in a relationship. being that they have legal jurisdiction and responsibility to each other, this fact in itself opens up various things that will be available to you and your partner(s)-
with that standing. such as conjoined banks and so on. with that in mind, it is not hard to think why marriage in itself has a legal age. it spearheads responsibility to you in forms of rights and 'obligations' of a household the moment that seal is waxed
"But cant you marry without having a household?" absolutely. and thats the part of the argument I want to focus on. not the fact itself, but the perceived obligation that comes with marriage in social environments, such as Indonesia.
The social stigma around marriage in Indonesia highly revolves around religion, mainly the standing of the islamic religion. Im not going to talk about the questionable laws regarding this in the islamic scripture, that is another topic to discuss. I want to talk about how-
this stigma has put an image of marriage that is dangerous on the minds of some people. The common reason or consensus is that it is to avoid 'zina', unlawful sexual intercourse according to islamic law. while in religious terms it makes sense, -
in ethical terms it does not seem very reasonable. Is it ethical to give a child or teen the burden of responsibility and objectifying stigma from their environment, setting up an expectation of maturity while mentally still undeveloped just to avoid being sinful in intercourse?
In religious terms it does eliminate a highly sinful act, but the toll of that layered pyramid of expectations that will befall and stress someone out. is it not sinful in itself to cause that much stress and pressure unto someone? wont that affect their mental state for the-
long run? And even in that, sexual intercourse will have a chance of child consummation, the chances of teens being able to parent a child is ethically questionable. and that fact pushes the stress and pressure even more, when you dont just need to take responsibility of a-
marriage standing, but the responsibility of raising a child. It does not help that abortion in Indonesia is still very scrutinized and young unprepared mothers are forced to bear with something they cant support. "Well dont have sex if you dont want a child"-
Then why bring up the "avoiding zina" argument in the first place? is it not that the sole purpose of that argument being used IS to have sexual intercourse? The act of intercourse in your teens is already a debatable topic in your standing, why double down on it with the-
expectancy of marriage? let alone child bearing?, it is not safe mentally and physically for a child to bear children. even in sentence that sounds horrible to think of. and this is a segway to my next argument or rather fact that child marriage is a tool for children to be-
sex slaves. this is a different topic that is highly prevalent in the whole picture. and Indonesia has been struggling with this ethical problem a long time. Child marriage in Indonesia and other 3rd world countries has been used as a reason for various crimes while being-
protected under the 'marriage' tradition, such as slavery, brides from children, kidnappings and etc. most of these traditions come from ancient religious values that are used to protect children then, and now being used as an excuse for ethically fucked up things.
its even questionable that the child marriage tradition was even used for protection in the olden days. as it still is bewildering as a thought. Its horrible to think that girls (mostly) are objectified because of the insane gender inequality these countries have. Its a shield-
for exploitation of children, and as an excuses for literal slavery. its a human rights violation, and its fucked up to think that some adults are that twisted to make use of children for their own pleasure. The exposure for these acts are still very minute in countries like Indo
Thats why I incline you to read up on the various articles and facts Ill be posting in this thread. please read up on them, thank you
Wikipedia: Child Marriage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage
UNICEF: Child Marriage https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-marriage
UNFPA: Child Marriage https://www.unfpa.org/child-marriage
Girlsnotbrides, A great avenue of child exploitation and child marriage articles of interest https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/
Indonesia's Child marriage commons https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/indonesia/
7 reasons on why ending child marriage is important https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/ending-child-marriage-day-of-the-girl-child/
For the first argument I have not touched about sexual education being a massive part of why early marriage is common, sex ed in Indonesia is very scarce and with the lack of that understanding its not far to realize that can be a dangerous commitment to go through with as a teen
This is a great article that touches upon the various importance of sex ed topics and how to teach them https://theconversation.com/how-to-teach-sex-education-in-indonesia-academics-weigh-in-122400
