The night-walkers of Uganda

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Find the information
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible:
1. How old is Yanti?
2. What is her job?
3. What does Tri do?
4. Where is Yanti from?
5. Where does Tini work?
6. How old was Tini when her parents told her to get married?
Indonesian parents still pick children’s marriage partners 
by John Aglionby in Bumi Agung
Tri Cayono, aged 24, is a farmer. Yanti, aged 22, is a cook. They both live in Indonesia. Recently they got 
married. The wedding was rather strange. Tri, the bridegroom, and Yanti, the bride, met for the first time at 
the wedding. They had never seen each other before. Instead of being happy, they were nervous and rather 
quiet. When they met they shook hands and smiled nervously. They did not kiss each other or hold hands. 
The photographer asked them to kiss each other for the wedding photograph but they did not want to. 
This is an example of the tradition of arranged marriage that continues to exist in many parts of Indonesia. 
Tri and Yanti had never met before the wedding and they knew almost nothing about each other. “Er, what 
does he like to do in his spare time?’ Yanti asked her cousin the day before the wedding. 
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Two months ago Tri told his friends and family that he wanted to marry a girl from central Java. “I think girls 
from central Java are cool and more fun,” he said. But Tri didn’t know any girls from central Java. However, 
this wasn’t a problem for him. A friend of Tri’s, Fajar, said he had a cousin called Mursiyati who would 
be a good wife for him. Tri accepted the offer immediately. Mursiyati’s parents forced her to accept Tri’s 
offer – Mursiyati’s father was pleased that Tri had some land – and she agreed to marry Tri. A month later 
Mursiyati met someone she liked and she married her new boyfriend instead. But Tri still wanted to marry a 
woman from central Java and Fajar had to find one for him. 
So in June the family suggested Yanti, a cousin. “When I heard her voice, saw her photo and learnt she 
was a cook, I knew that she was the woman for me,” said Tri. Yanti said she was “happy and excited” about 
marrying Tri, but her father, Saulusmin, was unhappy. “They haven’t even met - how can they get married?’ 
he said. But he did want to argue with his wife, Gina. “She will be angry with me if I say no to the marriage. It 
will not be pleasant,” Saulusmin said. 
It is impossible to know how many Indonesians are married in arranged marriages. Saman, the cleric who 
married Yanti and Tri, said situations like this, where the couple have never met, do not happen very often. 
“But there are many where the children have to do what their parents tell them,” he said. Tini, who now 
works as a maid in Jakarta, ran away from home when she was 15 after her parents told her to marry a 
28-year-old man. She thinks about a third of all the marriages in her district take place without the full agree-
ment of the bride and bridegroom.
World Vision, an international aid agency, says that arranged marriages are “still common” and experts say 
the tradition will probably continue. “It’s the tradition and it’s hard to fight against traditions,” one expert said. 
“Parents don’t like modern ways, especially when they see that divorce rates are going up. Daughters who 
listen to their parents get support. The ones that don’t listen have a much harder life.” 
Natural disasters and conflicts in Indonesia also help the tradition to continue. In situations where women 
have died, it is traditional for their younger sisters to look after their children, and this usually means they 
have to marry the widower. Money is an important factor. After the tsunami many people had financial prob-
lems so a lot of people wanted to marry off their children to make their own lives easier.
Back at the wedding, Yanti told everyone she was happy. “If I don’t have to go to work again - it’s his job to 
provide for me - and if I can have a couple of children, then I’ll be happy,” she said. “And I’ll probably be able 
to come back and visit central Java once a year.”