Her first contract marriage was to a tourist from Saudi Arabia. He was in his 50s, and she was 17. They wed in a small ceremony in a guest room at a three-star hotel in Jakarta under a controversial provision of Islamic law. After five days, the man got on a plane back to Saudi Arabia, where he unilaterally ended the marriage by saying the Arabic word for divorce: "talaq." Nikah mut'ah - or "pleasure marriage," as the temporary arrangement is known - has become an economic lifeline in the mountainous region of Indonesia called Puncak. The practice is so common that the area has become closely associated with what Indonesians often refer to as "divorcee villages."

In Indonesia's "divorce villages," local women earn a living off dowries from illegal marriages to Middle Eastern tourists. Our story on how this phenomenon became an economic lifeline in the lush mountains of West Java: https://t.co/5AeL7GlXYS

" Stephanie Yang (@StephanieAYang) September 11, 2024