A Constitutional Analysis of Women's Rights within Indonesia's Family Law Framework
- Authors
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Muhammad Ramadhan
Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Author
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Muhammad Taufik
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Author
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Mohammad Hossein
Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Author
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Mahnoor Fatima
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
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- Abstract
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The protection of women's rights within Indonesian family law continues to face fundamental challenges due to a legal framework that has yet to be fully aligned with the constitutional principles of equality, non-discrimination, and respect for human dignity. This study aims to examine women's rights within the constitutional architecture of Indonesian family law, identify the forms of constitutional dissonance and constitutional gaps that perpetuate gender inequality, and develop a constitutionalist model for the reconstruction of family law. Employing a normative juridical methodology, the research adopts statutory and constitutional approaches, with data analysed through constitutional interpretation, qualitative content analysis, and legal reasoning. The findings demonstrate that gender inequality in Indonesian family law is not merely attributable to the substantive content of legal norms but is systematically reproduced through the interaction of legislation, judicial institutions, administrative practices, and socio-cultural norms that have yet to fully internalise the constitutional principle of equality before the law. In response, this study proposes the Constitutional Family Equality Framework (CFEF) as a novel theoretical framework integrating constitutional supremacy, substantive equality, human dignity, responsive legal pluralism, and constitutional governance into the reconstruction of Indonesian family law. By repositioning constitutional family law from a predominantly normative reform agenda towards a broader programme of institutional transformation centred on substantive equality and human dignity, the framework advances constitutional scholarship on family law and provides a theoretically grounded foundation for developing a more inclusive, rights-oriented, and constitutionally coherent family law system in Indonesia.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Ramadhan, Muhammad Taufik, Mohammad Hossein, Mahnoor Fatima (Author)

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