Muslim Women and Post-Divorce Rights in Indonesia: Husbands' Perception and Courts Judges' Discretion on Alimonies

Women have for long time become a central issue within the Islamic legal discourse in the Muslim world, including Indonesia (Esposito; 2001; Husseini, 2006; Tucker, 2008; Cammack, 1999). Oassical Islamic legal doctrines have been deemed by a number of Muslim scholars as one of the barriers for Muslim women to receive equal and just position. In line with the reform trend and modern demand of life, Muslim countries made legal changes which have led to the empowerment of legal status of women (Hirsch, 1998; Cammack, 1999; Tucker, 2008), including Indonesia (Nasution, 2009). The.· rule of divorce, for an example, has received modification allowing women as men to have access to seek for divorce (Bowen, 2003; Cammack, 2007) and to arrange divorce more easily (Sumner and Lindsey, 2012). The rule of the rights that emerge after divorce has to some extent also received modification, although in general it maintained what has been regulated in classical legal doctrines. Nonetheless, such legal reforms have not fully and instantly led Indonesian Muslim women to a better justice in case of post-divorce rights in particular. It must be noted that under Indonesian Islamic legal rule women have several rights after divorce. They include right to custody, iddah maintenance, financial support for children, and gift of consolation (mut'ah). Except the right to custody, all these right are awarded if divorce petition is filed by men. If it is filed by women under khuluk way, women receive less right, as rights to spousal alimony and gift of consolation are excluded