Wonderful news if reports are to be true, that Indonesia will be raising the age a women can marry to 19 years of age.
Currently it is 19 for boys and 16 for girls.
In a predominately muslim country, this appears to be a step in the right direction.
Considering the plight women tend to have to endure in these heavily theistic countries, is this welcome progress?
What are your thoughts?
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On one hand I think it’s a decent idea, on the other, illegal abortion rates will likely increase along with associated deaths. I suspect that in such a religious country, many 16year old brides gave “premature” birth seven months after the wedding date.
I share Cyber's reservations, the age of consent must try and strike a balance between protecting people whose physical maturity is ahead of their emotional maturity, but without risking criminalizing them. It's the sexual predators who prey on them that the law should criminalise. I fear until a society recognise rights of women as equally as men, the age of consent won't be enough to protect young vulnerable women from such sexual predators.
I doubt it will do anything. Girls are promised to be married at birth in some cases. All it does is delay the ceremony. The horror of marrying a man you do not know who is 50 years your senior, still remains.
It's a step in the right direction. Girls belong in school, not in marriage beds. Now Indonesia needs to introduce safeguards to ensure that women can safely choose to marry or not marry whomever they want.
"The cure for poverty has a name, in fact: it's called the empowerment of women."
-Christopher Hitchens
@Algebe
Yes, yes and yes.
@Algebe: Excellent quote.
I’m fucking pissed off. I was specifically heading to Indonesia to find a 16 year old bride. Now, WTF? Where can I still find a 16 year old bride? Jesus Christ on a Stick!!!
Alabama.
Hell, why go to Indonesia? Apparently 14 states in the USA still allow marriages at 14 to 16. "16 states do not have a legal minimum marriage age when judicial exceptions are taken into account. Although in these states there is no set minimum age by statute, the traditional common law minimum age is 14 for boys and 12 for girls - ages which have been confirmed by case law in some states"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_age_in_the_United_States
And you thought ISLAM was insane.
I FOUND THIS ON THE SAME SITE:
Every state except Delaware and New Jersey allows underage marriage in exceptional circumstances if one or more of the following circumstances apply:
consent of a court clerk or judge (sometimes the consent of a superior court judge, rather than a local judge, is required)
consent of the parents or legal guardians of the minor
if one of the parties is pregnant
if the minor has given birth to a child
if the minor is emancipated.
So, as of September 2019, in the 37 states that have set a marriage age by statute, the lower minimum marriage age when all exceptions are taken into account, are:
2 states have a minimum age of 14: Alaska and North Carolina.
4 states have a minimum age of 15.
20 states have a minimum age of 16.
9 states have a minimum age of 17.
2 states have a minimum age of 18.
You are wasting your money by going to Indonesia.... It is completely unnecessary!
Is there no federal law that sets a minimum age? Christ on a bike, that's appalling..
@Thread
It gets worse.
Not only in some states there is no minimum age, but these kids also cannot divorce, w/o permission from parents. if the child "runs away" from the marriage, and the police find them, they are returned to the home where their husband is. If someone tries to shelter these kids and hide them from their abusive husband, that is considered kidnapping, and the person(s) sheltering the kid can go to jail.
Additionally in most all states spouses have the right to not testify against their spouse. This is mostly a good thing, until you have some 20+ year old married to some kid that is not yet an adult, and can pressure, (with threat of violence even,) for the little girl to not testify against them in court. And since they cannot escape the home, and will be returned to the home, this sort of pressure is all to easy to apply. The child's parents are the kid's only hope, but quite often it's the child's parents that agreed or arranged the marriage in the first place.
There is a couple of documentaries on this if anyone is interested.
Indonesia is worse, but there is plenty of ugliness in the USA as well.
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@Cognostic consent of a court clerk or judge
What if you're a judge, or even a state chief justice, and you want to mess around with underage girls? Do you still need a judge's approval, or can you just approve yourself?
But that could never happen in a Christian country like America, could it?
@Algebe; Ever heard of the Boy's Town Scandal. Another Catholic mess involving Senators, Congressmen and Judges.
@Cognostic Boy's Town Scandal
I hadn't heard of that one. I was thinking of Judge Roy Moore.
You always hope for the best, but expect and fear the worst.