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§ 4. Divorce.
Compulsory marriages.Before proceeding to describe the most usual methods of divorce in Acheh, we should point out that marriages to which the man, or both man and woman, are compelled (in conflict with the Mohammedan law), are of much less common occurrence in Acheh than in Java[1], yet do occasionally occur in the former country.
Most chiefs prefer to punish pregnancy in the unmarried by imposing a money fine and directing that abortion be caused, rather than by compulsory marriage; but there are nevertheless some who employ the latter method. Cases also occur here (just as in Bantěn) where the man is compelled to marry the woman on her complaining to the chief of his overtures to illicit intercourse and producing as evidence (tanda), like Potiphar's wife, a fragment of a garment worn by him.
Faskh.Separation is rare in Acheh as compared with other Mohammedan countries. We have seen that the woman, even when abandoned by her husband for years together, does not readily resort to a demand for pasah (faskh) or judicial separation, for she seldom wants for lodging or the means of support. Where, however, such a demand is made before the kali, he, like the pangulus in some parts of Java, grants the pasah rather more readily than is consonant with the strict interpretation of the Mohammedan law. Still the Achehnese kali cannot pronounce faskh without the special permission of the ulèëbalang, and where the latter forbids its exercise in a particular case, the faskh does not take effect, even though all the conditions required by the religious law may be fulfilled.
Ṭalāq/ The ordinary divorce (Ach. taleuëʾ from the Arab. ṭalāq) of the woman by her husband is also of less frequent occurrence in Acheh than in other parts of the Archipelago. The man feels himself under a deep obligation, for many obvious reasons, to the family of his wife, his relations with whom border on dependence. This withholds him in most
- ↑ In Java such marriages, especially between persons who have been detected in illicit intercourse, are much more frequent than would appear to be the case from Van den Berg's oft quoted essay (p. 466). They take place when the night watch on their rounds find a pair on terms of too great intimacy. Chiefs compel their followers, pangulus the inhabitants of their districts, to marry a pregnant woman simply on her unsupported assurance as to who her seducer is. The woman is generally divorced after a short time, but in the meantime this expedient has provided the yet unborn child with a father.
