A teenage boy has married a 73-year-old woman in a remote village on the Indonesian island, Sumatra.
The 15-year-old, Selamet Riyadi, and his elderly lover, Rohaya Binti Kiagus Muhammad Jakfar, were ordinary neighbours before Selamet caught malaria and Rohaya took care of him.
According to the local chief, the couple threatened to commit a double suicide if they were not allowed to be wed.
“Selamet is too young to marry but we married them anyway because he threatened to commit suicide,” village chief Cik Ani, told AFP, adding local officials also wanted them to “avoid the sin of adultery”.
“Since the boy is an underage, we have decided to carry out the marriage privately,” he said.
Riyadi’s father died several years ago and the boy was not properly cared for by his mother – who remarried.
73-year-old Rohaya has herself been married twice before, both times to divorcees and has children from those previous marriages, but this time “she got a vigin,” chief Ani added.
The marriage took place Sunday in the remote Karang Endah village in South Sumatra province, but sparked national interest when a video of the couple’s wedding vows went viral on social media outlets.
“He said he was madly in love. We love each other,” Rohaya told reporters after the wedding.
The video shows the unlikely couple reciting their vows in front of their relatives and friends. Under Indonesian law, the legal age for marriage is 19 for a man and 16 for a woman.
