Muslim revival brings polygamy, camels to Chechnya
by Amie Ferris-Rotman
16 December 2009



GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) — Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds he might soon take a fourth.

"Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They (the wives) spend time together, but do not always see eye to eye," said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.

Hardline Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov is vying with insurgents for authority in a land ravaged by two secessionist wars with Moscow. Each side is claiming Islam as its flag of legitimacy, each reviles the other as criminal and blasphemous. Wary of the dangers of separatism in a vast country, Moscow watches uneasily as central power yields to Islamic tenets. It must chose what it might see as the lesser of two evils.

Though polygamy is illegal in Russia, the southern Muslim region of Chechnya encourages the practice, arguing it is allowed by sharia law and the Koran, Islam's holiest book. By Russian law, Adam is only married to his first wife of 28 years, Zoya, the plump, blue-eyed mother of his three children, with whom he shares a home on the outskirts of the regional capital Grozny. His "marriages" to the other two — squirreled away in villages nearby — were carried out in elaborate celebrations and are recognized by Chechen authorities.

The head of Chechnya's Center for Spiritual-Moral Education, Vakha Khashkanov, set up by Kadyrov a year ago, said Islam should take priority over laws of the Russian constitution.

"If it is allowed in Islam, it is not up for discussion," he told Reuters near Europe's largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union fell in 1991. "As long as you can feed your wives, and there's equality amongst them, then polygamy is allowed in Chechnya," he added.

Islam is flourishing in Chechnya which, along with its neighbors Dagestan and Ingushetia, is combating an Islamist insurgency which aims to create a Muslim, sharia-based state separate from Russia across the North Caucasus. Though Islam first arrived in the North Caucasus around 500 years ago, in Dagestan's ancient walled city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea, religion under Communism was strongly discouraged.

Kadyrov, like most of his region's one million people, is Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam which places a greater focus on prayer and recitation. Political analysts say that in exchange for successfully hunting out Islamist fighters, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrov's Muslim-inspired rules. Today Grozny's cafes hold men sipping smuggled beer out of teacups as alcohol has been all but banned, single-sex schools and gyms are becoming the norm and women must cover their heads in government buildings.

Clad in a tight hijab, Asya Malsagova, who advises Kadyrov on human rights issues and heads a state council dealing with the rights of Chechen prisoners, told Reuters: "We believe every woman should have a choice — but we prefer she covers up."

Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, Islam's revival has also brought violence against those who do not live by sharia law in the North Caucasus — a region the Kremlin has described as its biggest political domestic problem. Islamist militants, who label Kadyrov and other regional bosses as "infidels" for siding with Moscow, have been behind attacks on women they say worked as prostitutes in Dagestan and murders of alcohol-sellers in Ingushetia.

In Chechnya and Ingushetia, rebel fighters who regularly carry out armed attacks on police are celebrated as "martyrs" by Islamist news sites with links to the insurgency.

HOLY CAMELS

Dirt roads lead the way to Chechnya's first camel farm, about 55 km (34 miles) northwest of Grozny, where 46 of the two-humped creatures munch on salt and grass while they are groomed to be gifts for dowries and religious holidays. Considered holy animals in Islam, they sell for 58,000 roubles ($1,886) each, said Umar Guchigov, the director of the farm, which opened just over a year ago under Kadyrov's command, and plans are in place to build three more in Chechnya.

"So many people, simple people, congratulated us for bringing back this ancient tradition," Guchigov said.

Animals are also being used to reintroduce Islam at Chechnya's round-the-clock Muslim television channel, where 60 young bearded men and headscarved women create children's programs in large studios adorned with photos of Mecca.

A bevy of bumble bees joyfully scream "Salam Alaikum" (Peace be with you) upon entering the studio of Ruslan Ismailov, who is making a full-length cartoon on hi-tech Apple computers for the channel, which is called "Put," meaning "The Way" in Russian. "The bees appeal to children, and they will teach them how to live properly by the Muslim faith," Ismailov said.

Set up two years ago by the state and broadcast to thousands across the North Caucasus, instantly becoming one of the top channels in the region, it also features programs for women on how to keep home and reading of the Koran throughout the night. "It's no secret what Chechnya has been through," said the channel's general director Adam Shakhidov, sporting a ginger beard and traditional black velvet cap. "Two wars, the Soviet Union and today's Muslim extremism... it's time to show the true beauty of Sufism and install the basis for sharia," he said.

Source: Reuters.

Zuma formally weds 3rd wife in Zulu ceremony
4 January 2010



KWANXAMALALA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's president formalized his marriage to his third wife during a traditional ceremony Monday amid media reports he plans to take a fourth bride later this year.

Some 2,000 guests thronged a homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal province to watch the ceremony in which 67-year-old President Jacob Zuma and 38-year-old Tobeka Madiba took part. The couple are already married under South African law and have three children. Madiba attended Zuma's inauguration ceremony in May. He paid a dowry to her family in 2007 as is tradition.

Meanwhile, a family member told the Associated Press on Monday that Zuma is also planning to marry again later this year. Other relatives have told South African media that the president plans to wed Durban native Gloria Bongi Ngema. The president's office has not commented on the reports.

Monday's ceremony included an hourlong traditional Zulu wedding dance. During the ceremony, Madiba performed a solo dance while holding a spear and a shield to symbolize her acceptance of her new husband. Zuma, wearing a skirt made of animal fur pelts and sporting bright white tennis shoes, then joined the dance. The bride wore matching sneakers.

Guests dined on traditional Zulu foods, and attendees were told that more than a dozen sheep, goats and cows had been slaughtered for the feast. Wedding guest Sipho Msomi, a cattle herder, said the wedding made him proud to be Zulu, the nation's largest ethnic group. "We love him because he is one of us and does not look down upon us," he said. "Zuma can marry as many women as he wants. It is our culture."

Another guest, 28-year-old Prudence Khumalo, said she also supported the polygamous tradition. "In the West is frowned upon," she said. "Here we celebrate it. It is our culture and we stand by it."

Zuma, 67, a Zulu traditionalist and an unabashed polygamist, has now married at least five women over the years and has 19 children. He currently has three wives including Madiba: Sizakele Khumalo, whom he married in 1973, and Nompumelelo Ntuli, whom he wed in 2008. He also was married to other women: Kate Mantsho Zuma, committed suicide in 2000. He divorced the other, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, in 1998, although she remains a trusted aide and is now the country's home affairs minister.

When he took office earlier this year, all three wives were at the inauguration ceremony, but only Khumalo, his first wife, accompanied him to the main stage set up outside the presidency building in Pretoria. Since then, none of his wives has had a particularly prominent role, in keeping with the practice of South African first ladies before them.

Zuma's embrace of Zulu tradition — including polygamy — has endeared him to many South Africans. Still, some consider polygamy old-fashioned and expensive, and question how it can endure in a modern country. And experts say having multiple, concurrent partners heightens the risk of AIDS, leaving some to question what model a polygamous president presents. South Africa, a nation of about 50 million, has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country.

Zuma is not alone among world leaders when it comes to polygamy. In the Gulf, the number of a ruler's wives and who among them is paramount are a constant source of rumors.

Source: Breitbart.

'Half a good man is better than none at all'

A study of polygamy in Russia suggests we have a lot to learn about how to beat the recession

by Mira Katbamna
Tuesday 27 October 2009


Family gathering in rural Siberia, where life can be very hard for women on their own. Photograph: Caroline Humphrey

A study of polygamy in Russia might not seem an obvious place to look for insights into how the financial crisis might play out in suburban Kent or rural Yorkshire. But Caroline Humphrey, Sigrid Rausing professor of collaborative anthropology at Cambridge University, says central Asia and Russia have much to teach us.

"In the 1990s, Russia and central Asia experienced huge economic change: what a bank was, how your career was going, what you could expect from life, everything changed overnight," she explains. "And of course it had a huge impact on people's lives, from family life to politics, and polygamy is part of that whole scene. So far, we haven't had such dramatic change in the west, but you never know."

Humphrey specialises in the anthropology of communities on the edges of the former Soviet Union, and has spent much of her career studying the Buyrat people who live north of the Mongolian border in Siberia. Humphrey says that anthropologists slowly build a deep knowledge and understanding of a place and culture, but nevertheless, her discovery that there is a polygamy lobby was a surprise.

"Friends of mine in Siberia told me that their friends were lobbying parliament to legalise polygamy," she says. "I always knew that there were men who like the idea of polygamy, but what I found fascinating was that women were also in support."

So is the recession going to turn the good burghers of Tunbridge Wells into polygamists? It's unlikely. But it remains the case that the reasons why men – and, even more interestingly, women – are advocating polygamy in Russia and Mongolia are as much about economics as they are about sex. The critical issue is demography. The Russian population is falling by 3% a year – and there are 9 million fewer men than women. Nationalists, such as the eccentric leader of the Liberal Democratic party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, claim that introducing polygamy will provide husbands for "10 million lonely women" and fill Mother Russia's cradles.

Elsewhere, in the former Islamic regions of Russia, men argue that polygamous marriage is traditional and will encourage men to take greater responsibility – thereby alleviating poverty and improving "moral" education.

Improbably, for both groups, this is polygamy as a solution to contemporary social ills – and, according to Humphrey, is appearing outside Islamic regions. In rural areas the "man shortage", exacerbated by war, alcoholism and mass economic migration, is even more serious. But when it comes to polygamy, rural women have a quite different agenda from their nationalist male counterparts.

"A lot of women live on what were collective farms, which are often deep in the forest and miles away from the nearest town," Humphrey says. "You live very close to nature, and life can be very hard – your heating is entirely through log stoves, there's no running water and inside sanitation is rare. If you are lucky enough to keep animals, you must care for and butcher them yourself. So if you are looking after children as well, life can be near impossible for a woman on her own."

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Humphrey's investigations have uncovered women who believe that "half a good man is better than none at all". "There are still some men around – they might be running things, with a job as an official, for example, or they might be doing an ordinary labouring job, but either way, there aren't very many of them," she says. "Women say that the legalisation of polygamy would be a godsend: it would give them rights to a man's financial and physical support, legitimacy for their children, and rights to state benefits."

Legalising polygamy has been repeatedly proposed and discussed in the Russian Duma, or parliament – and always turned down. For the urbanites of Moscow and St Petersburg it is a step too far.

In Mongolia, too, the legalisation of polygamous marriage is anathema. Yet in Ulan Bator, the thrusting capital city, well-educated women are combining traditional and modern to create something that looks suspiciously like a form of polygamy.

Surprisingly, it starts with the dowry. Eschewing the traditional gifts (horses, cushions, clothes), successful Mongolian families are increasingly giving their daughters a good education in place of a dowry. In contrast, their brothers often have to leave school early to either manage the herds or run the family business.

"In Mongolian culture, the bride's family are the senior family; and a bride should be clever. And they had 70 years of communism, so the idea that women should be well-educated is not new," Humphrey explains. "Since Mongolia, in common with Russia, also has a problem with alcoholism, there is an imbalance between urban educated women and the number of men these educated women deem to be suitable husband-material."

The solution is simple: they just don't get married. Instead, they take what is known as a "secret lover" – usually a well-educated man who just happens to be married to someone else. Any children resulting from the union are brought up by their mother and the maternal family.

"It is completely accepted. These women are among the elite of Mongolian society – they might be a member of parliament or a director of a company and they are tremendously admired," Humphrey says. "They would be horrified by the idea of polygamous marriage because they don't want to risk their independence."

So what does this mean for marital relations in Russia and central Asia? Humphrey says it's unlikely that polygamous marriage will ever be legalised in Russia – but perhaps that doesn't matter.

"An insufficiency of men, educated women who want to realise themselves, rural women who want to protect themselves, all these things are going to give rise to arrangements like polygyny," says Humphrey, "whether it's called that or not."

Source: Guardian UK.

South African President Jacob Zuma (L) takes part in a dance during his traditional wedding to Tobeka Madiba (R), his fifth wife, at the village of Nkandla in northern KwaZulu-Natal, January 4, 2010.
REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Two Chinese wives spot common husband on social networking site
23 December 2009

A Chinese man has been arrested on charges of bigamy after his two wives discovered each other on a national social networking site, China Daily said on Wednesday.

The Mexican national of a Chinese origin, identified as Chang, was arrested last week after one of the wives added her husband's "buddies," including the other spouse, to her contact list on Kaixin001, a Chinese version of Facebook. The two women soon became friends.

The bigamy was exposed when they exchanged wedding photos, featuring the same groom.

It turned out that Chang married to a woman from the eastern province of Zhejiang, in 2005. Later, while doing business in Mexico, he met a woman from Beijing, and also married her when he learned she was pregnant.

He managed to keep the secret by telling the wives he was doing business abroad and could not return home frequently. Upon his arrival to China, he usually split his time between the two homes in Zhejiang and Beijing.

The first woman sued her husband, and he was detained while secretly visiting his parents.

Source: Ria Novosti.

Texas polygamist gets 33 years for child sex abuse
Friday, 18 December 2009
Associated Press

The Texas attorney general's office says a 57-year-old member of a polygamist group has been sentenced to 33 years in prison for the sexual assault of a child.

The office says in a statement that a jury decided yesterday on the punishment for Allan Eugene Keate, the second member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to be convicted on that charge.

The jury at a court in Eldorado, West Texas, deliberated for under two hours on Tuesday before convicting Keate for his "spiritual marriage" to a 15-year-old girl who gave birth at age 16.

The prosecution's case largely relied on records seized from the polygamists' Yearning For Zion Ranch in April 2008, including some that indicated Keate had six wives aged 17 to 49 in 2007.

Source: AP via The Independent UK.

Religious, children's, civil rights groups apply to intervene in BC polygamy case
THE CANADIAN PRESS
29 January 2010

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A number of groups have applied for intervener status in a constitutional test case aimed at clarifying whether or not polygamy is a crime.

There are 13 applications from 16 groups and individuals in the B.C. case, including the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children and the Canadian Association for Free Expression. B.C.'s attorney general launched the reference case after polygamy charges were dropped last October against the two leaders of a polygamous sect in the community of Bountiful, B.C.

The leaders, Winston Blackmore and James Oler, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have also applied to intervene in the B.C. Supreme Court case. Other groups seeking status include the Christian Legal Fellowship, the B.C. Teachers' Federation, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, and Nancy Mereska, founder of the group Stop Polygamy in Canada.

Thursday was the deadline for such applications. Chief Justice Robert Bauman has yet to review them.

Source: Breitbart.

Split decision: Woman gets 6 months to divorce
February 2, 2010

BAD AXE, Mich. (AP) — There are matchmakers and then there are match breakers, such as the Huron County judge who sent a woman to jail for polygamy and gave her six months to divorce one of her husbands. Lorri L. Freesland of Kinde pleaded guilty to the charge in December.

Authorities have said she wasn't divorced from the man she married in 2000 in Macomb County's Clinton Township when she married her second husband Aug. 3, 2007. Her first husband moved to Alaska in 2006.

Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski told The Bay City Times that Circuit Judge M. Richard Knoblock on Monday sentenced the 43-year-old Freesland to 15 days in jail and one year of probation. He also told her she had six months to resolve her marital status.

Information from: The Bay City Times

Zuma told 20th child harms S.Africa safe sex drive
1 February 2010
By Peroshni Govender


South African president Jacob Zuma, second right, seen with his three wives Sizakele Khumalo, right, Nompumelo Ntuli, left, and Thobeka Mabhija, second left.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) — South African opposition parties accused President Jacob Zuma on Monday of a cavalier attitude to safe sex that is hurting the HIV/AIDS campaign after news that a woman not one of his wives had had his 20th child.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said Zuma, 68, was sending the wrong message to South Africans, among the world's worst sufferers from HIV/AIDS. "There are some people who may argue that Jacob Zuma's sex life is a matter of private morality or 'culture', but this is not so. His personal behaviour has profound public consequences," DA leader Helen Zille said in a statement.

At least 5.7 million South Africans are infected with HIV and AIDS kills an estimated 1,000 people a day. The African Christian Democratic Party said Zuma was undermining the government's drive to persuade people to practise safe sex to combat HIV/AIDS. "... his conduct undermines his own government's message on HIV/AIDS, because they are talking about safe sex and the president is continuing without using condoms. He is undermining the message of his government," said ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe.

The Congress of the People (COPE), another opposition party said Zuma could no longer use African cultural practices to justify his "promiscuity". "Polygamy is not promiscuity and his behaviour is not justifiable under any circumstances, COPE said a statement. Calling Zuma's conduct irresponsible, the party said the public should demand he acts like a president and not a "gigolo".

A source close to Zuma told Reuters that the president, a traditionalist who practises polygamy and has three wives, had acknowledged in a legal document being the father of a child with Sonono Khoza, 39. Khoza, the daughter of Irvin Khoza who heads the local organising committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, gave birth to a girl in October last year. "Zuma acknowledges that the child is his and accepted full responsibility", the source said. Sonono Khoza has undertaken not to speak to the media, the source added.

The presidency has said previously that Zuma has 19 children. Zuma's spokesman was not available for comment. Zuma married for the fifth time last month, taking Tobeka Madiba as his third current wife. Multiple marriages are allowed in South Africa and form part of Zulu culture, but the practice has drawn criticism from HIV/AIDS activists.He defended polygamy at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. Asked whether he treated all his wives equally, Zuma replied: "Absolutely, totally equally".

He is also married to Sizakele Zuma, 67, his first wife who he wed in 1973, and Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma who he married in 2007. He was previously married to Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma whom he divorced in 1998 and Kate Mantsho-Zuma who committed suicide in 2000.

The ANC has backed Zuma accusing the media of "making a mountain out of nothing" and calling the criticism disingenuous and unjustified. "There is nothing wrong with what the president had done. There is nothing shameful when two adults have a relationship."

(Additional reporting by Alison Raymond, writing by Marius Bosch; editing by Tim Pearce)
Source: Reuters.

Israeli 'guru' charged with rape

An Israeli man who kept a cult-like harem of women and fathered dozens of children with them has been charged in a Tel Aviv court with enslavement, rape, incest and other sexual offences.

14 February 2010


A televison documentary showed several of the attractive, young women fussing and cooing over their "husband", brushing his long, prophet-like locks in front of the camera

Goel Ratzon, 60, is accused of setting himself up as a "godlike" figure who preyed on troubled women, but he claims the women came to him voluntarily. Several women who identified themselves as Ratzon's wives appeared in an Israeli television documentary aired last year.

"He is the messiah everyone is talking about," one said. "He is already here and he hasn't been revealed yet. The day he decides to reveal himself, the land will quake."

Israel has been fascinated by the case of Ratzon, with his flowing white hair and unconventional life with at least 21 women and up to 49 children. Police were aware of Ratzon for years, but say they couldn't make any allegations stick until three of the women brought complaints to welfare authorities. Ratzon was not legally married to the women.

Ratzon was arrested last month but until now hadn't been formally charged.

Source: Telegraph UK.

Three Malaysian women caned for extramarital sex
17 February 2010


A group of ethnic Malay Muslim women are pictured in a park in downtown Kuala Lumpur in 2007.

Malaysia said Wednesday that three women have been caned under Islamic law for having extramarital sex, in a first for the Muslim-majority country.

The case will fuel a debate over rising "Islamisation" in Malaysia, where religious courts have been clamping down on moral offences as well as a ban on Muslims consuming alcohol that had been rarely enforced. Officials said the three women were caned on February 9 at a women's prison outside the capital Kuala Lumpur after being convicted of "khalwat" or illicit contact with the opposite sex.

"I hope this will not be misunderstood so much that it defiles the purity of Islam," Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said according to state media. "The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future," he said, adding that none of the three sustained any injuries.

Islamic scholars have said previously that the punishment would be carried out when the woman was fully clothed and with a cane that is smaller and lighter then the heavy length of rattan used in the civil justice system. Hishammuddin said the three women and four men were caned following a December decision in the religious courts -- which operate in parallel to the civil system in Malaysia. He said one woman was released from prison on Sunday while another would be freed in several days and the third released in June.

Islamic authorities triggered uproar last year when they sentenced mother-of-two Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno to six strokes of the cane after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel nightclub. Her case, which was to have been the first time a woman was caned under Islamic law in Malaysia, is under review and human rights groups have urged religious authorities to drop the sentence.

Kartika's sentence has been given wide media coverage but the case of the three women convicted of extramarital sex came as a surprise. Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan said it was worrying that the punishment had gone ahead even as the caning issue was being hotly debated by Muslim scholars, religious groups and human rights activists. "The impression was that Kartika's case would be the first so I've got no idea what has happened," he told AFP. "It's not as if this is the Middle East... it's not a good signal that they're sending out. We are against any form of corporal punishment, for men or women," he added. "The fact is that any form of whipping is barbaric."

Kartika, a part-time model, stared down religious authorities after being convicted, saying she was ready to be caned, refusing to lodge an appeal, and challenging them to cane her in public. Alcohol is widely available in Malaysia but is forbidden for Muslim Malays, who make up 60 percent of the population. They can be fined, caned, or jailed for up to three years but prosecutions are extremely rare.

Kartika's case has raised concerns that Islamic law is on the rise in Malaysia and that the nation's secular status is under threat, eroding the rights of minority ethnic Chinese and Indians. Observers say that the dynamic of "political Islam" has escalated since 2008 elections that saw the long-serving Barisan Nasional coalition lose unprecedented ground to the three-member opposition alliance.

After minority voters deserted the coalition, its lead party the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) it is now vying with the conservative Islamic party PAS, an opposition member, for the votes of Malays.

Source: Breitbart AFP.

Saudi religious policeman lashed for having six wives
18 February 2010



A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to 120 lashes for having six wives at the same time.

Muslim men can keep up to four wives at a time under sharia, or Islamic law, which is applied in Saudi Arabia. Reports say the unnamed man worked for the country's religious police. At his trial, the defendant claimed he did not know he was breaking the law. The man was also banned from leading prayers and ordered to read two chapters of the Koran.

Islam permits polygamy for men on condition that wives are treated equally. The case was tried in a court in the southern province of Jizan.

Religious police

Reports said that the accused was a member of the 5,000-strong Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The committee, known as the Mutawa, enforces the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam, particularly regarding relations between the sexes. But a court official speaking to Reuters news agency said the man held only an administrative post there.

Correspondents say the case is one of a string of abuses by the religious police that have been exposed by the Saudi media. In a move seen as an attempt to rein in the Mutawa, in February 2009, Saudi's King Abdullah replaced the head of the organisation. In 2007 the Mutawa were banned from detaining suspects after the force came under criticism for overzealous behaviour after recent deaths in custody. In 2002 the religious police allegedly stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress.

Source: BBC News.

How do Zulus explain polygamy?
4 March 2010
By Elizabeth Diffin
BBC News Magazine


President Zuma and his wives

South African president Jacob Zuma, on a visit to the UK, has been criticised by some in the British press for having three wives. But while the practice raises eyebrows in the West, how is it justified in his home country?

Trade talks and his nation's hosting of the World Cup are on the agenda for Jacob Zuma's three-day state visit to the UK. But interest has mainly focused on his consort - Thobeka Madiba, the latest woman to join his polygamous marriage.

In the UK, to be married to more than one person at a time is illegal. But the Zulu ethnic group, of which Mr Zuma is part, practises polygamy by tradition. This clash in attitudes dates from the 19th Century, when white missionaries preached that conversion to Christianity entailed divorcing one's "extra" wives, says Ndela Ntshangase, a lecturer in the school of Zulu studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.


President Zuma attributes his polygamy to the Zulu culture

And British colonisers "pushed [monogamy] down the throats of black people" through taxes that rose for each wife, and land allocations with insufficient space for polygamous family units, says Mr Ntshangase.

However, polygamy in South Africa is still a fact of life for many. While urban Zulu communities have found it difficult to uphold the arrangement, those in the rural homelands have maintained the tradition. Muslim populations and other cultural groups in South Africa also practice polygamy.

While some in the British press have seized on Mr Zuma's attitudes to marriage, he defends his private life as part of his culture. "When the British came to our country they said everything we are doing was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way," he told Johannesburg's Star newspaper this week. "I don't know why they are continuing thinking that their culture is more superior than others."

So how do they explain the tradition?

Boy-girl balance

In southern Africa, the population skews slightly female, says Mr Ntshangase, who says the male population is partly depleted by "unnatural deaths" in war and other dangerous activities. "If you say it's one-to-one, you will have a big chunk of ladies who aren't going to have husbands. What do you do with them then?" But this gender imbalance argument holds no sway for Protas Madlala, an independent political analyst, who declares it "unsophisticated".

Elders also use polygamy to warn young men that they could lose out on love if they don't behave. "In order to win a girl, you must be a good boy," says Mr Ntshangase. "Responsible young men become responsible husbands."


The president's most recent wife accompanied him on his state visit

In Zulu culture, "every family member must work for the betterment of the family". And a way to improve a family's status and income is to add extra members, he says, and adds that additional wives can be particularly advantageous in an agricultural society. And polygamy offers women a degree of economic well-being they might not otherwise attain, says Mr Madlala. "Polygamy fits into the socio-economic inequalities we have. It gives [the wives] insurance of sorts."

But the theory that polygamy favours equality for women holds little water for Leslie Mxolisi Dikeni, a research associate at the University of Pretoria. "On paper there is total emancipation of women, but traditional forms of polygamy are not allowing for that," he says. Even in so-called equal polygamous marriages, there's innate gender imbalance between the husband and his wives.

Spectre of Aids

Some of those who support polygamy believe a monogamous system would mean more unattached women, who would then have affairs with married men, says Mr Ntshangase. He claims that in a polygamous marriage, a woman will share her husband instead of getting divorced. "[Divorce] is another type of polygamous marriage. It's just not happening simultaneously or concurrently."


Under apartheid, polygamy thrived in rural Zulu villages

But polygamy does not stop men and women straying. South Africans who are uneasy about their president's lifestyle point to the fact that he recently fathered an illegitimate child, says Mr Madlala. Nor does it necessarily mean an end to separation - Mr Zuma has already been through one divorce. Even though polygamy is a part of its traditions, there is a new reality that raises questions about whether this lifestyle has a place in modern South Africa. More than 5 million people in South Africa are HIV positive - the most of any country in the world.

"South Africa is almost the Aids capital of the world," Mr Madlala says. "Our president is not really a good model."

Source: BBC News.

Pakistani cricketer admits he is already married on eve of second wedding

The former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik yesterday admitted that he is already married just days before his planned wedding to Indian tennis star Sania Mirza.

Dean Nelson in New Delhi
7 April 2010


Ayeesha Siddiqui (left) Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza (right)

Mr Malik, 28, made the confession after the Muslim woman he wed seven years ago handed her wedding night bed clothes to police for forensic testing to prove their marriage had been consummated. He said a divorce settlement had now been agreed.

Commentators compared her gambit with the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal in which her stained dress was used to prove the sexual relationship the former US president then denied.

Mr Malik's plans to marry Miss Mirza, 23, were thrown into doubt last week as Ayeesha Siddiqui, 29, from Hyderabad, said he was already married to her and lodged a fraud and deception case against him. She claimed the cricketer had married her in a telephone ceremony in 2002 following a long-distance courtship, but had later abandoned her after his cricket team-mates teased him because she was overweight. However, Mr Malik maintained he had never met Miss Siddiqui and that she had duped him by passing off photographs of a prettier, slimmer girl as herself.

In a statement released in the presence of Miss Siddiqui's mother and relatives of Sania Mirza, Miss Siddiqui's uncle announced Mr Malik had accepted he was already married, and that he had agreed a nominal divorce settlement. Miss Mirza and Mr Malik will now marry in Hyderabad next week before holding a reception in Pakistan and making a new home on neutral territory in Dubai.

The settlement was hailed as "justice" by Miss Siddiqui's family.

His sudden capitulation was met with surprise in India where Miss Siddiqui's claims had been regarded with suspicion, but was welcomed by senior Muslim 'qazi's' or judges who said the row had damaged their community. Prior to the settlement experts said even if the couple had married Mr Malik was still free to marry Miss Mirza because Islam allows a man to take four wives as long as he is able to meet all their needs. They also said the wedding registration certificate, known as a "nikahnama" was not valid because it had not been signed by witnesses.

"We spent intimate nights in the Taj Krishna as well as the Taj Residency [hotels]. According to the custom, the clothes are still with me," Miss Siddiqui said. She told police Mr Malik had later ignored her after she put on weight and that at his request she had had surgery to insert a gastric band to help her slim down. "The surgery has not helped me lose weight," she said.

Miss Siddiqui's mother, Farisa, said yesterday: "My daughter's wish was to gain a divorce without any money. All community leaders have come to him (Shoaib) to do the settlement and he has done it. "My daughter had to pass through hardships. Finally justice has been done. She is relieved and very happy I wish them (Sania and Shoaib) well."

Source: Telegraph UK.

'Stupid' bigamist avoids jail
April 30, 2010

A Tasmanian man has avoided jail after admitting being a bigamist.

Nicholas Trikilis, 44, of Conningham admitted forging divorce papers so he could marry a woman in 2008. He submitted a wedding photograph to a local paper where it was spotted by his first wife who then complained to police. He pleaded guilty in the Hobart Magistrates Court to bigamy, forgery and giving false information.

Magistrate Michael Daly said most people would call the crimes stupid but the law says they are undoubtedly criminal. He fined Trikilis more than $2,000 and sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for five years.

Source: Yahoo! ABC Australia.