Category Archives: Polygamy

Once this core democratic issue is sorted the rest of UCC shall follow more smoothly. Sequencing is the essence of good social reform

The discussions on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) are going sideways because of the reluctance in stating that the real aim is to ban polygamy, which allows a man to have more than one wife. The rest of UCC is really background noise. That the call for UCC only appears in the Constitution as one of the non-justiciable Directive Principles, makes it appear like a promise akin to jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never today. Alice in Wonderland, once more. This positioning of UCC in the Constitution took away its urgency though it bobbed up, from time to time, in lazy, hazy conversations before it was patted back to bed. Its relevance gradually faded away, allowing polygamy to reset the alarm and go back to sleep. It was in the 1980s that it was rudely woken up when the Shah Bano case made polygamy among Muslims a national scandal; even so it did not really stir the entire UCC package.

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First, make all polygamy illegal | India News - Times of India - Times of India

By Syed Khalique Ahmed*

The Mumbai-based International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS), working under the Central government, has blasted the myth that Muslims are the only polygynous community, with males having more than one wife. IIPS recent research report, uploaded on its website, says that polygamy is the highest among Christians in India, followed by Muslims and Hindus.

The report comes amidst raging debate on the Uniform Civil Code(UCC), with many right-wingers, including BJP leaders, elected representatives to state assemblies, Parliament, and ministers throwing their weight around the demand for a UCC, particularly to ban polygyny among Muslims, as they believe that every Muslim man marries four wives and hold Muslim community responsible for growth of population in the country, a new research has exposed their claims.

The latest research on polygamy tendencies by IIPS, a deemed-to-be-university, and an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI), has concluded that Christians as faith group are the most polygamous in India, followed by Muslims and Hindus. The researchers who conducted the study are Harihar Sahoo, R Nagarajan and Chaitali Mandal.

The research is based on the data collected from the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) conducted between 2019 and 2021. NFHS data is based on the statements of married women who stated that their husbands had other wife or wives besides themselves.

According to the IIPS data, the rate of polygyny among Christians, as per the NFHS-5, is 2.1% against 1.9% among Muslims and 1.3% among Hindus. Thus, the difference between Muslims and Hindus polygyny rate is just 0.6 per cent.

Likewise, polygyny rate was found to be 0.5% among Sikhs during the period covered by NFHS-5, 1.3 per cent among Buddhists and 2.5 per cent among others (religion/caste group not stated).

According to the research, the national average of polygyny is 1.4%, indicating a declining trend, because it was 1.9% during NHFS-3 (2006-2006) and 1.6% during NHFS-4 (2015-16). The research says that polygyny decreased in almost every state from 2015-16 to 2019-21, with the exception of nine states (Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Tripura, Maharashtra, and Puducherry). Though the polygyny is not legal in India for any community other than Muslims, the IIPS research says it is still prevalent among non-Muslims in various parts of India.

Polygyny in India is more prevalent in Northeastern and the Southern states of India, as well Sikkim bordering Nepal. According to the report, Meghalaya (6.1%), Mizoram(4.1%) and Arunachal Pradesh (3.7%) in the Northeast have the largest prevalence of polygyny. The current rate of polygyny is 3.9% in Sikkim.

In South India, the highest prevalence of polygyny is in Telangana (2.9%), Karnataka (2.4), Puducherry (2.4%) and Tamilnadu(2%). In South India, practitioners of polygyny are generally Hindus. The districts with high rate of polygyny are: East Jantia Hills (20%), West Jantia Hills (14.5%), West Khasi (10.9%), South West Khasi Hills(6.4 %), Ribhoi (6.2%), East Khasi Hills (5.8%), all in Meghalaya. The other districts are: Kra Daadi(16.4%), East Kameng(10.2%), Papum Pare(6.9%), Kurung Kumey(6.6%), Lower Subansir(5%), Upper Subansiri(4.9%), all in Arunachal Pradesh. Then there are other districts with high rate of polygyny: Bijapur (5.9) in Chattisgarh, and Yadgir(46%) in Karnataka. Lowest polygyny in regions with Muslim concentration

What needs to be noted is that the states or regions with Muslim dominance are among the states with least prevalence of polygyny. For instance, Lakshadweep with almost 100% of Muslim population and Jammu & Kashmir with overwhelming majority of Muslims have only 0.5 % and 0.4% of polygyny, respectively, busting the politically-motivated claims of Hindu right-wingers that every Muslim man practices polygyny.

The rate of polygyny among Christians, as per the NFHS-5, is 2.1% against 1.9% among Muslims and 1.3% among Hindus

The study indicates that polygynous marriages are more prevalent among women who had no formal education (2.4%) than among those who had higher educational (0.3%) qualifications.

Polygamy was most prevalent among the poorest women and women who had no formal education. It is also most prevalent in rural areas (1.6%) than in urban areas (0.6%). Polygyny is also more prevalent among poorer people (2.4%) and very less (0.5%) among rich people.

Polygamy in other countries According the Pew Research Centers survey by Stephanie Kramer in 2020, polygamy is prevalent in several countries of the world like Germany, Russia,, China, Iran, Canada and the US where it is less than 0.5%. In Iraq, it is 2%.

West and Central African countries like Burkina Faso (36%), Mali (34%) and Nigeria (28%) etc. are the polygyny centres of the world, with people living with more than one wives. Religion wise, they are mostly Christians and Muslims. But even people belonging to folk religions or no religion at all in Burkina Faso practice polygyny (45 %).

The Pew Research says that many of the countries that permit polygamy have Muslim majorities, but the practice of polygamy is rare in many of them. The report says that countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Egypt are Muslim majority and polygamy is allowed there, but only less than 1% of men live with more than one or two wives.

The Pew Research is, however, silent on polygamy in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and their neighbouring Muslim majority countries because of lack of data from these countries.

According to Pew Research, one-in-five US adults consider polygamy as morally acceptable. The Pew report about the US is based on a Gallup Poll conducted in 2003. More than conservatives (9%), liberals (34%) see polygamy as morally acceptable.

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Polygamy going down among Muslims, says GoI supported ... - THE INDIAN AWAAZ

Following is another in a series of columns on The Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

Article XVIII of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 reads:

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is Gods unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.

The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in Gods image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children Gods pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.

Southern Baptists added Article XVIII to the Baptist Faith & Message in 1998, thus making it part of the 1963 confession and carrying it forward into the 2000 edition. Witnessing the erosion of our cultures view of marriage, family, and gender, Southern Baptists boldly reaffirmed Gods unchanging standards as revealed in Scripture and embraced by Christians throughout the centuries.

Today, the prevailing secular view is that marriage is an archaic, man-made institution in need of revision. Further, modern culture views the family as an evolutionary unit that may be restructured to meet changing societal needs, and gender as a subjective personal choice.

But the Bible says otherwise. Marriage, family, and gender are gifts from God. They are established and fixed for the good of all people, who are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).

Marriage is the first institution God ordains, and he does so before the Fall (see Gen. 2:18-25). The consistent standard of Scripture is that marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The gift of sexual intimacy is for pleasure and procreation within the confines of monogamous marriage, requiring unselfishness and purity (see Heb. 13:4).

When biblical figures even heroes like King David engage in sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage, it often ends badly. Polygamy proves no less a sin.

Further, marriage should be highly prized, for it is given to us as a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and his church. The Lord Jesus is depicted as the bridegroom, and his church is the bride (see Matt. 9:15; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7; 21:2; 22:17; cf. Matt. 25:1-13).

The apostle Paul develops this concept more fully in his letter to the Ephesians, where he instructs wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He goes on to say, Husbands, love your wives, just a Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (Eph. 5:22-23, 25).

Paul links marriage and the church back to the garden of Eden and Gods creative intent for fidelity in covenant relationships: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31-32).

Husbands are to provide for their families and protect them from harm. They also are to be the spiritual leaders in the marriage and family not in a tyrannical sense but on the basis of spiritual authority as demonstrated in the faithfulness of Jesus (see Col. 3:18-21).

Wives are equal partners in marriage, as both are created in the image of God. At the same time, a wife is to receive the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation (BF&M Article XVIII).

Biblically, a family consists of persons related by marriage, blood, or adoption. A family, consisting of a father, a mother, and their children, reflects Gods glory in the right ordering of civilization and society.

This means that family, like marriage, is central to Gods design for humanity. It requires love, order, intimacy, and unity qualities that have existed throughout eternity within the members of the Trinity.

All people, whether married or unmarried, are related to family through various ties of blood, kinship, or adoption. Yahweh is a relational God, and he made us to thrive in relationships, as well.

He even adopts followers of Jesus as his sons and daughters (Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 3:26; 4:6; Eph. 1:5). This is good for us to remember. In the ancient Near East, a persons family of origin and ancestry formed his or her primary identity. This continued for first-century Christians with an important twist: their identity is now the family of God gathered around Christ.

As Jonathan Pennington notes, The most frequent metaphor used to describe Christians is brother and sister. This family language is very purposeful, teaching Christians to realign their allegiances around their new identity as the children of God.

Modern culture seeks to redefine the family and celebrate alternative expressions of it. Examples include same-sex marriage, cohabitation, polygamy, polyandry, and more. But as Charles Kelley, Richard Land, and Albert Mohler explain, The family is not a laboratory for social experimentation but an arena in which Gods glory is shown to the world in the right ordering of human relationships.

Children are to be welcomed as blessings from God. Parents have a God-ordained responsibility to raise them in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). In return, children are to honor and obey their parents, which is pleasing to God (Exod. 20:12; Eph. 6:1-3).

Scripture is clear that God created human beings male and female, and he did so that we might be his image bearers (Gen. 1:26-27). This doesnt mean God, who is spirit, has gender, although the eternal Son of God became flesh as a man (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 2:5), and the other members of the Trinity are depicted in masculine terms in Scripture.

It does mean, however, that God created men and women in a complementary way for marriage and procreation. Further, their intimacy as husband and wife reflects the intimacy of the members of the Trinity, as well as the close bond between Christ and his church.

God defines gender. Humans redefine it at their peril. Gender may be confirmed through God-given physical evidence genetic, biological, and anatomical, for example. Humans are to celebrate gender as a gift from God.

At the same time, gender confusion including a condition known as gender dysphoria is nearly as old as the Fall. Because human beings created in the image of God live in a fallen world, the lines between male and female are sometimes blurred for example, in those rare instances when a person is born with both male and female features, and, more commonly, in those who feel intense emotional unease with their birth gender.

In every case, followers of Jesus are to treat those who struggle with gender confusion with compassion and understanding, knowing that we, too, are subject to frailties of our own. At the same time, we should help our friends rediscover Gods gift of gender, sharing a biblical view of what it means to be men and women created in the image of God.

Next: A 2023 amendment to The Baptist Faith & Message.

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Article XVIII of the BF&M: The Family - The Pathway

. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .Sweet Spirit, what souls are these who run through this black haze? And he to me: These are the nearly soulless whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise. They are mixed here with that despicable corps of angels who were neither for God nor Satan, but only for themselves. The High Creator scourged them from Heaven for its perfect beauty, and Hell will not receive them since the wicked might feel some glory over them.

Lets start with Dante and his description of those souls who tried to be neutral on earth, neither good nor bad, just OK. For Dante, they were the most despicable people in the afterlife. They do not go to hell, per se, because they never embraced wickedness. But they dont go to heaven either. They just wander around miserably, not being anywhere or anything because, because they failed to commit to anything during their lives.

From Dante, we learn the crucial truth that not bad is not the same as good. A number of other statements flow from this understanding: not false is different than true; not wrong is different than right; and not worthless is not the same as valuable. The absence of a fault is not yet a virtue.

But I dont really want to talk about Dante here. I want to talk about apologeticsthat branch of religious writing that focuses on defending or explaining religious beliefs or institutions.

There is nothing wrong with apologetics. We struggle in English because the word sounds so much like apologize, and that, in turn, usually means something like make excuses for. And to be fair to the uninitiated, religious apologetics often does sound a lot like making excuses for religious problems. Latter-day Saint apologists, when not trying to overwhelm people with adjectives and advanced degrees, often fall into the trap of trying to excuse, rather than defend or explain, difficult things.

I recently spent some time with the Mormonr Hard Questions site, one of the newer such sites in the LDS apologetics world. There is a lot to recommend their approach. It has none of the combative ethos that often characterizes LDS apologetics, it answers a lot of questions with words like probably, and sort of that demonstrate epistemic humility, and it does a great job documenting issues and explaining them with timelines and helpful infographics.

Like several other sites, Mormonr is geared towards GenZ and younger Millennialsgenerations that appear to be leaving the Church in record numbers after they 1) encounter historical problem areas on the internet; and 2) find themselves increasingly in opposition to the church on social issuesespecially LGBTQ issues. Here are two examples of such problem issues, along with some excerpts from the Mormonr response:

ISSUE #1: Fanny Alger and Joseph Smith

The history of polygamy can be uncomfortable or frustrating, and even more so when it relates to Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger, the first polygamous relationship. Did Joseph make up polygamy to justify cheating on Emma? Was there a power imbalance with Joseph being her employer and a prophet? What about that age gap?

Unfortunately, there are very few contemporary historical records on this relationship and there are no historical records from Joseph or Fanny. This makes it difficult to reconstruct the story using historical evidence and makes it tough to answer the hard questions about Joseph and Fanny in a satisfying way.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

One reasonable interpretation is that the relationship with Fanny seems to be the first attempt to start practicing polygamy, one that appears to have been fumbled by Joseph. Though Joseph might have been imperfect in implementing polygamy, we can rely on a spiritual witness that comes by study and faith on Joseph Smiths role as prophet of God.

ISSUE #2: The Church and Proposition 8 in California

For many people, this is not a topic that will have satisfying answers. With the mix of political and social issues at play, theres not really a comfortable place to land.

Did the Church overstep its bounds by getting involved in this highly charged political issue? Was the Church doing the right thing to ask its members to mobilize and vote a particular way? These are difficult questions, and they may not have clear answers.

But one question that is answerable is whether the Church can legally participate in politics and influence policy. Since the Church is a non-profit, and non-profits can participate in politics that affect their interests, the Church was within legal bounds to campaign for Prop 8.

The Church doesnt usually give direction on how to vote (though in this case, it did), but it does encourage members to be politically active. Though faithful Church members may disagree on how the Proposition 8 situation should have been handled, each should remember to respect and love those on every side of political or social discussions.

I have spent a lot of time studying rhetoric and argument, and I recognize the argument style used here. It is a very effective style for dealing with concerns that includes the following steps:

These are all important skills to use when discussing potentially divisive topics. The Mormonr site is a master class in effective, civically responsible discussion of hard questions in a way that does not increase polarization or outrage. I like this site quite a lot, and I think that it does a lot of necessary work in the Latter-day Saint ecosystem.

But I also see a major problem with this entire approach to apologetics, and it goes back to Dante: this approach is designed to turn antagonism into neutralityto convince people that Joseph Smiths relationship with a teenage girl does not completely disqualify him from being a prophet, or that it is OK to be a Latter-day Saint and disagree with the Church on things like Proposition 8.

The problem is that neutrality is not enough to accomplish the goal of keeping peopleyoung or otherwisein the Church. People do not want to identify with institutions that are just not false, not bad, and not guilty. They need to understand the positive good that an institution does and the value that being a part of it can have in their lives.

I do not stay involved in the Church because I have satisfactorily resolved all of the historical problems that I have encountered. Nor do I stay because I have come to agree with the Churchs position on social issues that are important to me. I stay because I have discovered things in the Church that offset these very real problems and make it a net positive in my life.

The young people that I know who have left the Church (and a lot of the not-young people too) did not leave ONLY because of historical problems and social issues. They left because they could find nothing of value to offset their discomfort. It requires an enormous investment of both cognitive and spiritual resources to construct a nuanced position that accounts for these problem areas and still manages to celebrate faith and spiritual identity. People will only be willing to invest this effort if they see a substantial return for doing so. Not as bad as you thought is just not enough.

This, I think, is the real problem that apologetics has to grapple with: how to defend the Church by showing how it is good and not just how certain hard questions can be sort of answered. Absolute statements that the Church is true and this is what God says are just not enough. They have never been enough. They set up an all-or-nothing proposition for which nothing is quickly becoming the default setting.

The way to deal with the problem areas is not to provide lengthy explanations to mitigate their negative impact. Everybody who affiliates with any institution involving human beingsnations, universities, corporationshas to deal with problems, usually big ones, that do not have easy solutions. We remain connected because we perceive positive value in spite of the problems. For religious apologetics to matter, they have to spend less time establishing the not badness of the Church and more time identifying and exploring its goodness.

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Apologetics that (Might) Matter - By Common Consent

New Delhi: Polygamy has entered the political discourse in the past few months owing to speculation over a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), but data shows the practice is rare in India so much so that only 1.4 per cent of married Indian women surveyed in 2019-2021 said their husbands had another wife or wives.

India has also seen a decline in instances of polygamy across religions and demographies, according to a research brief published by the Mumbai-based International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) in June 2022. It makes these assertions on the basis of responses gathered across multiple rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), up to the latest, NFHS-5 (2019-21).

The brief goes on to highlight that the practice of marriage to more than one spouse at a time is more prevalent among tribal-dominated districts, besides the poorest and uneducated households. The authors Harihar Sahoo, R. Nagarajan and Chaitali Mandal use NFHS-5 data to establish that incidents of polygamy are highest among members of the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in India.

Compared to the national average of 1.4 per cent (NFHS-5), the rate of polygamy was 2.4 among STs, 1.5 among SCs, 1.3 among OBCs and 1.2 among others.

Even among STs, the number has come down from 3.1 per cent in NFHS-3 (2005-06) to 2.8 per cent in NFHS-4 (2015-16) and further to 2.4 per cent in NFHS-5 (2019-21).

Although polygynous marriage is not legal in India for any community other than Muslims, its practice still continues in some sections of the society in India, reads the brief. It adds that the prevalence of polygynous marriages in India was quite low, at 1.4 per cent in 2019-21, and further declined over time.

The research brief draws on responses to a question on polygamy in the NFHS questionnaire. As part of the nationwide survey, married women were asked whether their husbands had more than one wife.

The percentage of women who responded in the affirmative declined from 1.9 in 2005-06 (NFHS-3) to 1.6 in 2015-16 (NFHS-4) and eventually to 1.4 in 2019-21 (NFHS-5).

In simpler words, in 2005-06, almost one in every 50 women admitted to being in a polygynous marriage. By 2019-21, this number dropped to one in every 70 women. The NFHS-5 also provides data for women who were married between 2015-18, and of those, not even 1 per cent were reported to be in a polygynous marriage.

Polygynous marriage was more prevalent among women who had no formal education than among those who had higher educational qualifications, reads the brief.

A polygamous relationship is one in which a person is married to two or more people at the same time, whereas a polygynous relationship refers to a man being married to two or more women at the same time.

Also Read: 82% women in India able to refuse sex to their husbands, finds govts family health survey

The brief further specifies that incidents of polygamy have dropped across followers of most religions considered, namely Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists, while witnessing a marginal increase in the case of Sikhs 0.5 in 2019-21 from 0.3 in 2005-06.

Indias Muslim personal law does leave room for polygamy. That is, a Muslim man is allowed to have four wives. However, data shows that the practice is not all that prevalent among Indian Muslims.

According to the NFHS-5 data, only about 1.9 per cent of Muslim women said their husbands had more than one wife, compared to 1.3 per cent of Hindu women who admitted to being in a polygynous marriage in 2019-21.

Since the population of Muslim women is at least four-five times lower than that of Hindu women, there is a chance that Hindu women living in polygynous marriages may outnumber Muslim women in absolute terms.

The gap was wider in 2005-06, when 2.6 per cent of Muslim women admitted to living in a polygynous relationship, compared to 1.8 per cent Hindu women.

It is important to note that this gap is also subject to regional heterogeneity.

For instance, Assam where Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reportedly said in May last year that a Uniform Civil Code would act as protection for Muslim daughters had the widest gap between Hindu and Muslim women who admitted to being in a polygynous relationship in 2019-21. The rate of polygamy among Hindu women in Assam was about 1.8 per cent, according to NFHS-5 data, as against 3.6 per cent among Muslim women.

Other states and Union territories where this gap was wide included Odisha, West Bengal, Delhi, and Kerala.

There were also four states where the proportion of Hindu women who admitted to living in a polygynous relationship was higher than that of Muslim women.

In Telangana, this was 3 per cent in the case of Hindu women as against 2.1 per cent in the case of Muslim women. Chhattisgarh (2 per cent vs 1.6 per cent), Tamil Nadu (2 per cent vs 1.7 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (1.9 per cent vs 1.8 per cent) were the other three states that reported a similar pattern.

According to the brief, the practice of polygamy fades with improvement in income. Among the poorest households in India, the rate of polygamy was 2.4 per cent, as against 0.5 per cent among the richest households.

In total, there were about 18 states and UTs where the prevalence of polygamy was above the national average of 1.4.

Meghalaya reported the highest figure for polygamy, with 6.1 per cent of women in the state admitting that their husbands had another wife or wives.

In Mizoram and Sikkim, where tribals make up 95 per cent and 33.8 per cent of the population respectively, the polygamy rates were 4.1 per cent and 3.9 per cent.

In Arunachal Pradesh, it was 3.7 per cent, followed by Telangana (2.9 per cent) and 2.4 per cent each in Assam, Karnataka, and Puducherry.

Goa had the lowest rate of polygamy barely 0.2 per cent, or 1 in 500 women, said their husbands had more than one wife. Joining Goa at the bottom end of the list were Haryana (0.3 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (0.4 per cent), Gujarat (0.5 per cent), Punjab (0.5 per cent) and Rajasthan, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh (0.6 per cent each).

The research brief also lists out 40 districts where the prevalence of polygynous marriages was high, with East Jaintia Hills district in Meghalaya reporting the highest nearly one in every five women surveyed in the district admitted to being in a polygynous marriage.

The rate of polygamy was 16.4 per cent in Arunachal Pradeshs Kra Daadi district, followed by West Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya (14.5 per cent).West Khasi Hills in Meghalaya and East Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh also reported a rate of polygamy higher than 10 per cent.

The research brief also emphasises that policy makers working on this issue must know that this practice is low and further declining in India.

Before arriving at any conclusion based on the social, economic and demographic characteristics, one has to bear in mind that the prevalence of polygyny in India is low and it is fading away, it concludes, adding that the demographic health and gender consequences of polygyny need further investigation.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

Also Read: Indians are growing fatter, and the problem is biggest for wealthy women, shows NFHS data

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It's not just Muslims who have multiple wives in India. But practice ... - ThePrint

The Poison of Polygamy by Anchuli Felicia King is Courtney Stewarts inaugural production in her first season as Artistic Director at La Boite Theatre. It is epic in scale, set during the Australian Gold Rush, and was inspired by true accounts and events of the period. Adapted by King, of White Pearl fame, from an earlier novel by Wong Shee Ping, the work has had a long gestation period.

A co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), it will transfer with the same cast to the Wharf Theatre in Sydney after its premiere Brisbane season.

La Boite has long been recognised as an incubator for new Australian work. Courtney Stewarts vision is to build on that, by making it Australias most diverse theatre company. She is also keen to showcase the best of Queenslands creative talents, with a number of local artists cast in this work. As Stewart is a fourth generation Chinese-Australian, a play about the Chinese diaspora, with eight actors who share her ethnicity, is clearly an ideal work to begin her tenure with the company.

The story centres on an ambitious young man from southern China, Sleep-Sick (Shan-Ree Tan), his nickname derived from his opium addiction, which is consuming him as the play opens. Deeply in debt, he leaves his long-suffering wife, Ma (Merlynn Tong) and, like many before him, journeys to the Australian goldfields to make his fortune.

Lots of adventures befall him and his associates with Act 1 feeling like a personal story of migration issues. In Act 2, however, the play takes a different turn and the intriguing title, The Poison of Polygamy, becomes clearer when Sleep-Sick meets the tantalising Tsiu Hei (Kimie Tsukakoshi). She becomes his concubine and life unravels with disastrous results that include blackmail, betrayal and murder.

Kings English language adaptation is a beautifully crafted work with an excellent use of contemporary language framed within a classical text that is at times quite poetic. Given the themes of human weakness and moral dilemmas, it is almost Shakespearean in its overarching scope as it explores what it meant, and still means, to be Chinese in Australia.

Pings novel had a strong evangelical and proselytising element that of a morality tale examining the virtues of monogamy over polygamy. It also introduced a humorous and entertaining perspective, which King brings out in the play. At nearly three hours in length, however, the work would benefit from some judicious cutting without losing any of its intent or the power of the narrative.

Moreover, the second act seems to be almost a separate play to the first, with the idea of polygamy introduced almost as an afterthought and raised only by the character of the Preacher in three separate monologues. The role of the courtesan, Tsiu Hei, who dominates the second half of the play, could be cut substantially; her text is often repetitive and adds little to the story. We understand who she is very early on.

Stewarts direction ably brings the text to life drawing finely nuanced characterisations and excellent performances from all the cast. Her attention to detail and her ability to keep the action flowing works well, as does the doubling of roles by most of the cast.

As both the Preacher and Sleep-Sick, Shan-Ree Tan is magnificent. He gives excellent fire-and-brimstone sermons as the Preacher, while his well-modulated voice belies the devious, cunning nature of his character. He also plays the narrator, appearing to analyse the story from afar, managing the change well.

As his wife, Ma, Merlynn Tong is delightful, her goodness and naivety contrasting with that of her self-absorbed husband. Kimie Tsukakoshi makes a first-rate and believable Tsiu Hei, matching the evil nature of Sleep-Sick, and even surpassing it. She plays wickedness extremely well, despite being verbose.

Sleep-Sicks three associates are all beautifully delineated. As Ching, Ray Chong Nee plays the upright loyal friend, whose hard work and skill are rewarded with a family and a reputable business. He delivers his measured lines eloquently, always keen to avoid disputes.

Gareth Yuen is Pan, the passionate, political character with a positive outlook on life who speaks most of the poetic lines with a clear attention to text. His performance as Doctor Ng, with no scruples, is also well crafted. The third character, Chan, is the most ethical of the three, wanting to do the right thing by the law and objecting to Sleep-Sicks black market trading. Silvan Rus plays him with great dignity and persuasion. He also gives a fine cameo as Mas cousin, persuading Sleep-Sick to go to Australia.

Set in the round, the production has no set to speak of. Six versatile tall red pillars are used variously as walls,arches and parts of a ship. A framed wooden bed is the sole piece of furniture, used mainly for the numerous simulated sex scenes, as the title may imply. There are few props. The smoke machine gets plenty of use, however, creating a smoky dinginess in the opium dens as well as the seascape on the ship to Australia, lending atmosphere and depth to the bare stage.

This is assisted by Ben Hughes cleverly designed lighting which, despite being often quite dark, helps move the narrative along between scenes, illuminating mood and atmosphere.

All is all, this is a mixed work with high aims and some interesting ideas that are well delivered by a good cast. The play imparts a number of confusing messages including migration and the early Chinese-Australian experience, the role of women in society (both then and perhaps now) plus a general examination of the human condition.

Through the sole role of the Preacher, monogamy versus polygamy is examined, but in a limited way. Have I saved them? asks the Preacher in his last words, and the answer would have to be a resounding and depressing no.

Read: Theatre review: Loaded, Malthouse Theatre

For this viewer at least, the most important message that resonated was turning around the myth of the law-abiding, stereotypical Chinese immigrant, while understanding that ultimately human beings are all similar and there are good and bad in all societies. If that had been offered as the key message of The Poison of Polygamy, we may have seen a very different play.

The Poison of Polygamy by Anchuli Felicia King, La Boite Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company

Based on the novel by Wong Shee PingTranslated by Ely FinchPlaywright: Anchuli Felicia KingDirector: Courtney StewartSet and Costume Designer: James LewLighting Designer: Ben HughesSound Designer: Guy WebsterComposer: Matt Hsus Obscure OrchestraChoreography: Deborah BrownCast: Ray Chong Nee, Hsin-Ju Ely, Silvan Rus, Shan-Ree Tan, Merlynn Tong, Kimie Tsukakoshi, Anna Yen, Gareth Yuen

The Poison of Polygamy was performed at La Boite Theatre at the Roundhouse, Brisbane on Thursday 11 May 2023, and will transfer to Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney from 8 June to 15 July 2023.

The rest is here:

Performance review: The Poison of Polygamy, La Boite Theatre - ArtsHub

Modified May 12, 2023 05:32 GMT

Jake Shields went off the deep end once again and recently questioned the illegality of polygamy in the U.S. after viciously attacking the transgender community.

Over the past year, the former UFC welterweight has emerged as a prominent social media personality and is widely known for boldly voicing extremely polarizing opinions on sensitive social issues. Shields competed in the UFC from 2010-2014, winning four of his eight outings in the octagon.

Recently, Jake Shields has been making a splash on Twitter with his unfiltered criticism of gender dysphoria and transgenderism. He came under fire for making several controversial comments about trans-athletes competing in cisgender sports, including demanding "public executions" of trans allies.

In one of his latest tweets, Shields questioned why polygamy was illegal in a free country like the U.S. and argued his case by drawing parallels with trans-affirming surgery and gay marriage. He wrote:

Check out the tweet below:

Jake Shields stirred the pot with his recent tweet asking why consenting adults weren't allowed to be married to multiple partners. While the former professional MMA fighter is no stranger to controversy, social media users seemed eager to lay out their arguments for and against his unpopular take.

His fans and other Twitter users made their thoughts known in the comments section of the tweet. One fan agreed with Jake Shields and claimed they could get more work done with "sister wives," writing:

Another fan pointed out:

Another fan supported Jake Shields, writing:

One user wrote:

Another user joked:

One fan speculated:

Read more from the original source:

Jake Shields wants polygamy to be legal in the US after several attacks on the transgender community - Sportskeeda

You might have come across those videos of polyamorous couples that describe how their relationship is and those are quite viral on the internet. People usually have mixed reactions to polygamy but the truth is, it all depends on consent and preferences, just like in the case of this Rajasthan couple.

A unique marriage was recently reported from Rajasthans Tonk district where a man married two women who were sisters However, the man gave a rather interesting reason behind his decision to marry the sisters. Heres what happened.

Suggested Reading:Ronaldinho To Marry Two Women: Is Polygamy Morally Acceptable Today?

Kanta, the eldest daughter of Babulal Meena of Sindda region reportedly got a marriage proposal from Hari Om Meena. Hari Om Meena was a graduate while Kanta had completed her Masters in Urdu. The union seemed alright but Kanta put forward a condition in order to get married to Hari Om.

Kanta has a younger sister Suman who is mentally ill and depends heavily on her for her daily tasks. She could not complete her studies after eighth grade and spent her days in Kantas care who was responsible for all her work. Kantas concern was that after she got married, her mentally challenged sister would be on her own, which was not right for her. She couldnt do her work on her own and without Kantas care, it would become difficult for her.

Kanta expressed her desire to keep her sister with her even after getting married so that she can look after her. She also said that she would get married to Hari Om only when he agreed to marry her sister too. The groom and brides family agreed to the condition as they understood her pain. The three of them got married on May 5 in Morjhala, Uniyara, Rajasthan.

Hari Om reportedly said that if he did not agree to marry Suman, it would have been difficult for her family to find her a husband because of her condition. He said that he will do his best to keep both his wives happy in the marriage. Previously, a Jharkhand man got married to two women consensually after he had relations with both of them. He was in a live-in relationship with the first one and had a child with her while he met the other one at work and got close to her. There was another man from Chhattisgarh who also married two women saying that they both loved him and agreed to be married to him together.

Continue reading here:

Rajasthan Man Marries Two Sisters, Here's The Reason Behind It - SheThePeople

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22:26 IST, May 11th 2023

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22:15 IST, May 11th 2023

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Published: May 11, 2023 08:28 IST

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India News LIVE | Assam forms 4-member panel to examine possibility of law to end polygamy - Republic World

Dr. Shomaila Warsi

On May 11, Delhi-based multimedia platform Awaz-The voice carried an opinion piece by Prof. Akhtarul Wasey, Professor Emeritus (Islamic Studies), Jamia Millia Islamia titledMuslim women inherit multiple times and at times more than that of men. The article made three broad points about the apparent gender disparities in Muslim inheritance law. One is that since the inheritance law is derived from the Holy Quran, Surah Nisa (4:11-14), it leaves no scope for any change of reinterpretation of the classicalSharia.Said in other words, Allah has described to the minutest detail the method of division of the property, therefore human beings have no choice but to follow the divine decree.

The second point is that since a womans share in the capacity of a daughter, sister, wife or mother has been determined by Allah, again, the feminist demands of gender equality in the disposal of property goes against the grain ofSharia. And thirdly, and most importantly, the main argument from which the article derives its title, the discussion over the property rights of Muslim women is futile because, under the current scheme of things a woman inherits from her maternal home and also from her in-laws, not only from her father and husband, but also from her mother, and brother. In this way, she gets this share many times in his life. By that logic, the distribution of property in its presentSharia-compliant form is not just non-discriminatory but gives preferential treatment to Muslim women.

As is obvious, the article presents a traditionalist view of Islamic inheritance laws that are under challenge from Muslim reformers across the world. The popular interpretations of the sections from the Quran and Hadith related to the inheritance rights of Muslim women on which the article is based are being fiercely debated in Muslim-majority countries for quite some time and the states are invoking instruments of Ijtihad (independent reasoning by scholars) and its various forms like ijma(scholarly consensus),qiyas, istihsan(equity) andmaslahah mursalah(public interest) to apply for the Quranic injunctions in the right spirit of justice and equality that form the bedrock of Quranic understanding of gender relations.

While Prof. Wasey sees no place for debate over the application ofSharialaw to inheritance matters, the current debates and practices aroundShariain Islamic countries are quite heterogeneous. There are Muslim states like Turkey, Tanzania, and Albania that follow a secularShariasystem which is a departure from classicalSharia.

Then there are states like Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Morocco that follow a mixed system where family law as per the classical Sharia has been updated and reformed to meet the demands of time. Indonesia is a special case where the maxim ofHarta Gono Gini(joint property) has been incorporated in the Islamic Legal Compilation which is influenced by a Javanese tradition that wife and husband have equal rights.

Lastly, there are other States like Saudi Arabia that followSharialaw alone as per the Hanbali school of thought. Saudi Arabia turned to this after the advent of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab. So, Prof. Waseys first contention that classicalShariais immutable and there is no scope for any reform there is at variance with the practices in the larger Islamic world, yes this may be true for countries where political expediencies have necessitated a rigid interpretation ofSharialaw.

Then the specific second point in the article about the un-amenability of inheritance laws vis--vis Muslim women and how this debate is also closed because the Quranic verse is clear. Again the reality is that the debate on the law of inheritance in Muslim countries is very much alive and thriving and two broad patterns are seen. One side relies on the literal interpretation of Quranic verses to conclude that a man is entitled to receive two portions compared to a woman, while the other side argues that in the broader Quranic scheme man and woman are equal so the property should also be distributed equally. In countries like Tunisia and Turkey liberal interpretations have been gaining currency for a long to embrace the requirements of modernity while in nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, more traditional interpretations are applied.

Miftahul Huda expands the debate to identify four patterns of reform in the wider Muslim family law. Miftahul calls the first one progressive, pluralistic, and extra-doctrinal reform, such as in Turkey and Tunisia. The second type is adaptive, unified, and intra-doctrinal reform, as in Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Algeria, and Pakistan; the third type is adaptive, unified, and intra-doctrinal reform, represented by Iraq, while the fourth type is progressive, unified and extra-doctrinal reform, like in Somalia and Algeria.

The point is that we must look at inheritance law as an extension of family law and apply the same tools of interpretation to it. Prof. Wasey is very much aware that there are traditionalists who believe that polygamy is ordained by Allah and any law that outlaws polygamy violates Sharia. Likewise, when it comes to the share of orphan grandchildren,Shariahas often been wrongly applied to deny a share to them. But when it comes to reform, Pakistan and Indonesia found innovative ways to put limits on the practice of polygamy by making existing wives consent mandatory. Tunisia has banned polygamy altogether.

Likewise, laws were made to ensure that orphan grandchildren get a share of the property through a mandatory will from the grandfather. Family law reform has been actively pursued in Muslim states in recent years and Muslim jurists have found innovative ways to increase the minimum age of marriage, expand a wifes ability to give divorce, give custody of children to mothers, and reduce the subservience of Muslim women to their husbands.

In India tripletalaqused to be presented as an element of Muslim faith till it was finally abolished by the Supreme Court of India without a murmur from the larger Muslim community.

ALSO READ:I did it for dignity of my daughters and all women: Shukkur who remarried under SMA

The point is that many Islamic countries have reformed their laws to provide greater equality and rights to women. Inheritance laws in India must align with modern values and principles of equality and Muslim intellectuals here must take cognizance of the feminist themes in the debates around Muslim inheritance law and promote the reformist view of Islam. The need for reform to bring women at par with men is being felt everywhere and the Male Muslim scholars like Prof Wasey would do well by not siding with the status quo. They should rather advise Indias Muslim community to follow the law of the land on these matters if the Personal law fails to come of age.

(Dr Shomaila Warsi PhD teaches Politics and International Relations at Kirori Mal College Delhi University. Views are personal).

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A Muslim woman responds to Prof Wasey's article on inheritance ... - Awaz The Voice