'It is done in the name of tradition, so people just accept it blindly regardless if it is right or wrong.' Via TRF_Stories
LEMBAR, Indonesia, Oct 31 - Fifteen minutes into their first date, Indonesian teenager Helma Yani received a marriage proposal from a boy she had just met. He spirited her away to a relative's house and a month later, at age 17, they were married.
Known locally as"merariq", Sasak elders say the kidnapping is part of an elaborate courtship ritual requiring consent from both parents, but is now widely abused to justify early marriages. "She had not finished school, but what can I do except let her get married? If she returns unmarried she could bring shame on our family," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Lombok's bride kidnapping ritual dates back generations among the Sasak, an ethnic Muslim group of about 3 million who mostly live on the island east of the resort destination Bali. In Lombok, which sends one of the highest numbers of Indonesians overseas as migrant workers, some parents feel their daughters can be better looked after in their absence if they marry. It also alleviates a financial burden.
Yani, who was married under Islamic law and divorced by her husband a month before she gave birth, is struggling to get her baby a birth certificate as her marriage was never formally registered. Since 2016 he has worked with local charities under a pilot project to revive the original"merariq" traditions, which he said are governed by a set of complicated steps that must be carefully followed before the"kidnapping ritual" takes place.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
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