ABSTRACT
Kawin-lari is a form of spontaneous elopement that marks a couple's intention to marry. This chapter seeks to complicate the idea of marriage registration, highlighting its advantages and drawbacks for women who remain caught between two prevailing legal systems. Through a close examination of marriage registration in a context such as Lombok, where a preference for community-based law exists, the chapter highlights the overall implications registration has for women's marital agency. It explores the state-based Marriage Law implemented in 1974, its history and the debates that surrounded its formation. Through this examination, the chapter demonstrates how the Marriage Law itself became subsumed in debates about Indonesian and Muslim identity. It highlights that the state's vision of marriage has failed to capture the mutability of Sasak marriage. This raises a range of questions about Sasak women's legal subjectivities.
