Walking a thin line: Taking children’s decision to marry seriously?

Abstract

This article provides empirical evidence on children’s agency and capacity in making the decision to marry. Case studies from my fieldwork in Bali contrast the commonly represented image of child marriage as a forced marriage, by demonstrating that in many cases children themselves make the decision to marry. However, considering social power dynamics, is such a decision really the child’s? The analysis shows that the current international child marriage framework fails to walk the thin line between empowerment and protection of children. Policies instead should be designed to encourage their participation in decision making and stimulate their resilience in their life after marriage.

Are Indonesian Girls Okay? An Examination of The Discourse of Child Marriage, Victimization, and Humanitarian Visuality of Global South Girls

“…Moving forward, future empirical research on child marriage needs to investigate the contextualized realities of this practice, including to put the focus on investigating young people's sexualities and the agency of young people in determining with whom, when, and how marriage occurs (see Colquhoun and Nilan 2020 in this edition). Through this, as informed by previous research in Indonesia (see Horii 2019Horii , 2020Grijns and Horii 2018), future social policies can offer a range of alternatives in addressing the harmful impacts of child marriage beyond regulating the minimum age as envisaged by the dominant discourse. By focusing on banning child marriage, social policies obscure the diverse social realities, tend to drive the practices underground (see Boyden et.…”

“…Various studies have shown the role of young people's agency as an important aspect in determining with whom, when, and why marriages occur. Several case study research in Bali and West Java found that in many cases, young people were the ones who made the decision to get married, and in their perspective, their marriage is not considered as forced marriage (Horii 2020;Grijns et al 2016). Moreover, Grijns et al (2016) identify a typology of child marriages in West Java based on young people's agency, firstly are love matches of young people who chose their own partners as well as marriages inspired by orthodox beliefs.…”

“…Similarly, an ethnographic research in Lombok also shows the use of social media in challenging social norms related to early marriage, as social media facilitates the possibility of young people to find a partner, engage in premarital sex, and marriage (Termeulen 2019). With the 'universal' definition of child marriage as any type of (forced) marriages under the of 18, child marriage has become a discursive practice that remains to be uncontested and unchallenged (Horii 2020). What we propose is instead to acknowledge the diversity of this practice as well as young people's agency, especially girls, in making decisions about their own marriage.…”

“…Although child participation is used as one of the key strategies in preventing child marriage in Indonesia, participation is limited to prevent child marriage practices (Bappenas & KPPPA 2020). This limits further attempts to investigate children's own decision to marry, including to examine carefully relational and situational aspects that help shape their decision (Horii 2020). In the contradiction between child agency and sexuality, Waites (2005:19) asks: "[W]hat, then, are the conditions in which children should be called to participate in decision making, and give their 'consent' in activities affecting them?".…”

“…At the global discursive level, defining child marriage is often intertwined with the idea of 'forced marriage', which involves the marriage between an early-teenage girl and a much older man. As such, the discourse of early, child, or forced mar-riage (hereafter child marriage) particularly in relation to the lives of girls living in the Global South often places them as vulnerable, 'victims' that need saving from 'harmful' norms (Horii 2020). Practices of child marriage are inseparable from its exploitative and harmful nature.…”