The Dominance of Moral-Religious Grounds and Divorce Vulnerability after Marriage Dispensation in Religious Courts

A. Rachmat Wirawan

Abstract


Marriage dispensation raises a tension between preventing feared moral wrongdoing and protecting children throughout married life. This study examines the dominance of moral-religious grounds in Indonesian Religious Court applications, evaluates what reported divorce among former recipients can establish, and develops a continuous-benefit child-protection framework. It employs normative legal research, an integrative review of journal literature, and secondary analysis of official court publications. Statutory interpretation and thematic comparison connect urgency, consent, marriage readiness, foreseeable harms, and access to support. The analysis finds that avoiding zina is prominent in reported applications, although applicants’ explanations must be distinguished from judges’ decisive legal reasoning. Published post-dispensation divorce figures identify cases of vulnerability but lack linked marriage cohorts and durations needed to calculate an early-divorce rate or infer causation. Relevant risks involve economic dependence, psychological maturity, education, reproductive health, family pressure, safety, and gender relations. The proposed framework comprises evidence-sensitive classification of urgency, individualized assessment of children’s interests, proportional consideration of alternatives, and lawful referral to continuing assistance. Moral concerns cannot substitute for comprehensive child-centered justification; the framework remains conceptual and requires longitudinal empirical testing.

Keywords


marriage dispensation, moral grounds, divorce

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24097878

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