Protecting Women from Domestic Violence: Socio-Legal Approach to CEDAW Bill in Indonesia

Abstract

Despite the enactment of a specific law on domestic violence, the elimination of violence in the household is still an elusive target in Indonesia. A large number of Muslims’ divorces in the Religious Courts, for example, have involved domestic violence according to the National Commission on Anti Violence against Women. This article aims to discuss the opportunity and challenges of the elimination of domestic violence in the Indonesian Muslim Society. Employing both normative and socio-legal analysis, it finds that the state is unable to resolve the existing conflict between the requirements of the Law – which oblige the state to amend conflicting legislation – and the provisions of both civil and Islamic marriage laws which open the possibility of violence against women in the household. These include gender-role stereotypes, the fuzziness of the obedience concept (nushuz) and linking maintenance to a wife’s obedience, and the ambiguity of marriage validity. This necessitates the reformation of Indonesian marriage laws.