RIYADH, 3 August 2006 — Five Saudi men have been deported by Indonesian immigration authorities on Wednesday for arranging short-term contract (mutaa) marriages, while another Saudi national was released for lack of evidence.
These Saudi nationals were arrested on charges of violating Indonesian marriage laws in Puncak, a hilltop town south of Jakarta, frequented by tourists from different parts of the world including the Kingdom.
The Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh refused to speak on the issue.
According to reports, the group of five Saudi men were detained in raids on Monday night and early Tuesday following complaints from the local Indonesian residents about their conduct.
The reports said that a number of Saudis opted for these short-terms marriages thinking that they are religiously sanctioned. These arrangements allow these men to engage in relations with women while on vacation in a way they consider legitimate. Additionally, the Saudi government generally tried to dissuade Saudis from marrying foreign nationals. A media campaign was also launched a couple of years back to highlight the problems caused by mixed marriages. Non-Saudi women in particular often find it difficult to adapt to the social environment of the Kingdom.
Referring to the deportation of five Saudi nationals, Yeyet Oking, chief of Indonesia’s Bogor district’s immigration office, said “the short-term marriages are an act of disrespect for our marriage law and institution of marriage... Short-term weddings, which are not recognized by the state in Indonesia, had been practiced for years in several Indonesian cities and towns including Puncak and are a cause for concern among local people.”
Oking said that the move to crack down on “contract marriages,” as the practice is called here, is a necessary corrective step. He said short-term marriages usually involve local religious leaders blessing unions between foreigners and local women. The couples live together briefly before the men return home after materially compensating the women.
Mutaa marriages are illegal in Saudi Arabia. (They are not to be confused with “no obligation” marriages, called misyar, which are legally recognized in the Kingdom where women, usually second wives, forfeit their material claims in the marriage.)
According to a report published recently, Saudis married to Indonesian girls or for that matter any foreign girls outside the Kingdom without seeking official permission from the Ministry of Interior have been facing great difficulties in bringing their wives and children to the Kingdom. This has resulted in an illegal practice to bring their wives as housemaids, further compounding the problems for the Saudi and Indonesian government agencies in the event of a dispute.
But, then there is another social cause for the growing trend reported in the number of short-terms marriages. Steep dowries and restrictive social mores discourage many Saudi men from marrying their compatriots.
Most marriages in the Kingdom also end in divorce, said Abdullah Al-Fawzan, a sociology professor at King Saud University, in another report published recently. He warned that the number of unmarried Saudi women could exceed four million by 2007 because of the social problems spawned by the Kingdom’s economic development.
