ABSTRACT
Divorce has been critiqued as one of the key sites of male authority within broader Islamic discourse. This chapter highlighted the complex, and at times countervailing, practices that occur in the realm of separation and divorce in Lombok. It demonstrates how community-based divorce contributes to an overall dynamic marital continuum where people regularly move in and out of marriage several times over the course of their life. The fluidity of the marital continuum is made even more apparent when we consider that the nature of Islamic divorce itself is not linear. Discussing the point to migration and the destabilising effect it can have on marriage, the chapter argues that migrations broaden the scope of the marital continuum as marriages transcend provincial and national boundaries. The idea of male marital authority that is so omnipresent in western Lombok also acts as a key challenge to the implementation of the Marriage Law and its wider efficacy in the community.
