Unpacking the Discourse of Child Marriage in Indonesia: A Decolonial Perspective

ABSTRACT This article unpacks the notion of child marriage by exploring the meaning of coercion, sexuality, and agency. In many countries in the Global South, such as Indonesia, child marriage attracts attention from international agencies. The paradigm adopted positions girls as victims and sites for intervention. The research was conducted in a small village in Indonesia. Six people aged 17 to 35 years participated in this study. All of them were married before they turned 18. Two of them are male and four are female. Using feminist post‐structural and decolonial theories, the findings show how children’s choices to get married early are always situated within their agency and constrained by social factors such as poverty, low access to education, and religion. Therefore, the study invites policymakers and international donor organisations to go beyond the neoliberal understanding in their attempt to halt child marriage.