Strategies to Prevent Increasing Divorce Rates for Muslim Families in Indonesia

Abstract

The Annual Report of the Director General of the Religious Courts Agency states that the number of divorces in Muslim families in Indonesia has increased over five years (2017-2021). The impact of the increasing number of divorces is on parenting both emotionally and physically because the average age of 60% of divorced couples is aged 20-40 years who still have children in care. This study aims to formulate a strategy to prevent an increase in divorces in Indonesian Muslim families. This research uses a qualitative approach with descriptive analysis. Data was collected by using a questionnaire to several respondents, studying documents of religious court judges' decisions, interviews, and literature study. This study found that the strategy to prevent the number of divorces in Muslim families in Indonesia is carried out integrally, starting from the institutionalization of the fundamental values of marriage education in the family, pre-marital education in official institutions (Office of Religious Affairs), husbands and wives understand well the methods of resolving marital conflicts, and revitalization of the process of examining divorce cases in the religious courts. Thus, this study concludes that what must be done to strengthen the resilience of Muslim families in Indonesia in preventing an increase in the number of divorces is to prevent them from upstream to downstream.