Negotiating Gender Justice in Minangkabau Marital Disputes: Between Adat, Islamic, and State Law

This study investigates the negotiation of gender justice in resolving marital disputes within the Minangkabau community, where customary (adat), Islamic, and state laws intersect. Women frequently experience injustice not only in their domestic lives but also in the resolution of household conflicts. Utilizing a socio-legal approach, this qualitative field research is based on in-depth interviews conducted through purposive snowball sampling with women who have experienced marital disputes. The findings indicate that the mechanisms through which women resolve these conflicts—whether through customary, religious, or state channels—tend to perpetuate gender injustice. Often, individual resolution is adopted as an adaptive response to a range of structural and cultural barriers that restrict their access to formal justice. However, such individualized approaches frequently result in unresolved issues, thereby exacerbating gender inequities. This study underscores the inadequate role of religious, state, and customary institutions in ensuring substantive justice for women and emphasizes the need for a more inclusive dispute resolution framework that prioritizes gender justice.