Sunday, February 22, 2009

Interfaith Marriages don't Work(?)

90% of Indonesians who marry someone of a different faith end up going through divorce.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

how could they say that... you cant marry someone from different faith, they ban it since the 70s. the only way to do that is to get married abroad.

There are a lot of high profile artist who did that and ended up divorced.. are they using them as their statistics? coz I know more interfaith marriages that works than those who fails.

Irene Yuan said...

implement sharia quick!
*just kidding*

one thing that's interesting about interfaith marriages in indonesia is the birth certificate the child of such couples get. under the child's name it would say "anak haram (illegitimate child)". this differs from province to province, of course.

Unknown said...

triesti, i didn't realise they actually banned interfaith marriages... that's kinda shocking!! so much for indonesia's mythical tolerance...

irene, "anak haram"?? whoa...

Anonymous said...

They divorce because the society thinks that it is not a good practice. Whenever you do such thing, and then you attend masjid or religious gathering, people will start to say something "negative2 to you, in somewhat closed manner.

No wonder, the couples will start to think that what they did is wrong.

Unknown said...

jaka, yeh that was my instant response also...

Anonymous said...

hei irene what about me marrying someone from the ahmadiah school of thought. they are islam right? are my children going to be anak-haramed as well?

Irene Yuan said...

hahaha...seeing as the government doesn't even recognize ahmadiah as a legit branch of islam, yeah probably.

nila tanzil said...

hmm... i guess, when a couple can't handle each other anymore, no matter what religion they hold, they'll end up getting divorce.
so, it's a matter of how strong the bond is between the couple..
my mom and dad have different religions and they make the marriage last forever!

Nana Podungge said...

Well, I have never done any serious research on interfaith marriages, even among limited cycles around my own life here. However, I have some friends whose spouses have different religions from them. So far, they live peacefully. Or perhaps because I only see them from the distance.
They did not get married abroad. They got married here in Indonesia. But in the wedding, some chose to do it in Islamic way, some others in Catholic/Christian way. After the wedding ceremony, they just stick to their respective religions.

Christopher Taylor said...

Is that right, 90%? How depressing ... maybe they should all have a distinct lack of faith, like me and my wife ... :)

Unknown said...

delvi, irene, nila, nana & chris,

some bloke from the religion ministry says it's true so it's gotta be true?

nah, just more indonesian govt propaganda!

coffeeliqueur said...

Hmmm...I don't even dare to try...:)

Unknown said...

tia, why not? not trying just limits you rprospects : P