Polygamy marriage: Legal culture, optional political identity and marital status dilemma (a case study in pekalongan)

Abstract

Indonesian marriage law allows polygamy but with alternative and cumulative strict conditions. The novelty of this paper shows that the legal culture of polygamists is an important element that determines their optional political identity and marital status. This paper criticizes the legal culture in carrying out the polygamous marriages along with optional political identity and legal marital status of the actors. Qualitative research with the approach of social legal study was used to reveal the reality of polygamy among six couples. The findings and analysis show that the legal culture of the actors in either obeying or disobeying the rules of polygamy was subjective. However, the majority is diseobedient because they tend to break the rules, for instance by doing polygamy with sirri marriage. Sirri marriage is a political identity of life choice because of various considerations on both juridical and non-juridical ones. This condition has implications for the legal status dilemma of polygamous marriages. A marital status is considered legal only when the marriage is officially held and on the contrary, it is considered illegal in sirri condition. This polygamy marriage also has an impact on the legal status of the husband, wives and children in a family.