Indonesian firm in hot water over child marriage ads
Wedding planner faces prosecution for encouraging girls as young as 12 to get hitched
Women Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga. (Photo: Women Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry)
A wedding planner has drawn widespread condemnation in Indonesia for promoting child marriage in an advertisement posted on its website and social media earlier this week.
The advertisement from Aisha Weddings, which specializes in organizing Muslim marriages, encouraged Muslim women aged 12-21 to get married as a form of “obedience to God.”
According to the agency, a Muslim girl’s job “is to serve a husband’s needs,” so she “must rely on a man as early as possible for the sake of a settled and happy family.”