Indonesia targets polygamy

Indonesia targets polygamy

Indonesia targets polygamy as divorces rise: official

JAKARTA - INDONESIA is planning a crackdown on illegal polygamous marriages and will ask all Muslim couples to undergo pre-wedding marriage courses, an official said on Monday.

Religious affairs ministry official Nasaruddin Umar told AFP the government was concerned about rising rates of divorce, especially the increasing numbers of women who are leaving their polygamous husbands.

According to Indonesian court figures, in 2007 there were 937 cases of divorce due to differences over polygamy, up from a reported 813 in 2004.

Polygamy is technically legal in this mainly Muslim country, but only when the husband has registered his marriages and received the consent of his other wives.

'In our law, polygamy is allowed but the requirements are very hard. The man has to get the consent of his wife but a normal wife will never give consent to her husband wanting to marry another woman,' Mr Umar said.

'What's happening is that men are taking another wife without registering the marriage, usually through a religious ceremony which is considered legal for Islam.

'In the near future we will also issue a regulation that bans this kind of marriage.'

Mr Umar said the marriage course would last about one day and would be compulsory for all engaged Muslim couples hoping to marry.

'We will teach them about the risk of polygamy. The statistics show that polygamy does more harm than good,' he said.

'We have observed that the increasing divorce rate is caused by the fact that couples don't have sufficient knowledge about the substance of a marriage.' He said the idea was to 'eliminate or reduce the number of couples seeking divorce'.

Along with issues surrounding polygamy, the course would cover topics such as family planning and domestic violence.

'They will learn about contraception so that they won't have a child every year... About domestic violence, most married couples don't know that domestic violence can carry a jail sentence in this country,' he said. -- AFP

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_333337.html