Muslim Women in Indonesian Religious Courts

The 1974 Marriage Law and the Compilation of Islamic Law in Indonesia stipulate that permission of the religious court (Pengadilan Agama) is required for all divorces regardless of which party initiates the divorce. Thus, a man wishing to divorce is required to obtain permission to pronounce the divorce formula, and a woman wishing to divorce is required to go to court to initiate a khulʿ divorce. However, while both men and women must obtain permission from the court to divorce, women come to the courts to resolve their marital problems more often than men do. In recent years, the percentage of divorces initiated by women has been increasing. In 2001 57.5 percent of all divorces nation-wide were initiated by women…