TULUNGAGUNG – Halimatus Sa’diyah, an Indonesian scholar and women’s advocate, has intensified campaigns against child marriage and sexual violence in rural Tulungagung, where early marriage still affects many young girls.

Halimatus, who chairs the Fordaf (Forum Daiyah Fatayat), has spent years promoting gender justice and child protection through writing, religious outreach, and community education. She began publishing essays on women’s rights in campus media in 2005 and later contributed to regional newspapers and national women’s columns.

Since 2019, she has written regularly for platforms that promote gender equality within Islamic perspectives. Her advocacy deepened after joining the Kongres Ulama Perempuan Indonesia network, especially following its second national congress. She sees the forum as a bridge between religious texts and social realities facing women.

Halimatus frequently delivers lectures and counseling sessions across Tulungagung. She speaks at correctional facilities, women’s associations, student groups, and legal aid forums. These sessions focus on marriage law, women’s rights, and protection from abuse.

She argues that high rates of early divorce among young couples stem from structural factors rather than personal conflict alone. Economic hardship, emotional immaturity, and lack of life skills often undermine marriages formed in adolescence.

“If mental and financial readiness are absent, a household becomes fragile,” she said.

Despite Indonesia’s legal minimum marriage age of 19 for both sexes, child marriage persists in remote areas. Halimatus warns that tolerance of the practice risks creating a generation vulnerable to poverty and social instability.

To counter child marriage, she strongly promotes higher education for girls. She encourages families to see senior high school graduation as a starting point rather than an endpoint.

She highlights scholarship opportunities such as those from BAZNAS and the government’s Kartu Indonesia Pintar program. “The state has provided scholarships. We must encourage children to use them,” she said.

Halimatus also campaigns actively against sexual violence, which she links to patriarchal norms and rigid religious interpretations detached from social context. She has accompanied victims through legal proceedings, an experience she describes as the most emotional part of her work.

“I want them to become whole and empowered women,” she said.

Through sustained advocacy, writing, and grassroots engagement, Halimatus continues to challenge child marriage and gender-based violence in communities where both issues remain deeply rooted.