ABOUT POLIGAMY

Polygamy ban gets a mixed response

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta


The government's plan to extend the ban on polygamy for civil servants to cover all state officials could end up helping in the fight against corruption, a prominent Islamic scholar says.
Azyumardi Azra said widening the ban on polygamy, which is stipulated in the 1974 Marriage Law, would mean less male officials stole money from the state to keep their wives happy.
"(The ban) would be very good for the welfare of women and children because they would ending up being protected more justly, and it would also be a good way to improve the image of the Indonesian Muslim community," he said.
Azyumardi's view was one of many often unusual responses to the idea from Muslim leaders, scholars, lawmakers and women's activists.
Kamala Chandrakirana, the chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, thought it would be better to properly enforce the marriage law, which requires men intending to marry again to receive permission from their first wives before doing so.
"This gives an assurance (to people) that the first wife does give permission for her husband to take another wife," she said.
Other proponents said widening the ban would improve women's positions in society.
Currently, men are only legally allowed to take a second wife if their first wives are an invalids, terminally ill or infertile. The letter of the law, however, is rarely enforced and the practice is becoming more common among Muslims.
State Minister for Woman's Empowerment Meutia Farida Hatta Swasono said Tuesday the 1983 law prohibiting civil servants from practicing polygamy -- passed reportedly under pressure from the wife of ex-dictator Soeharto -- could be expanded to cover ministers, lawmakers and governors, regents and other officials.
The minister announced the plan after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The move comes after charismatic Muslim preacher Abdullah "Aa Gym" Gymnastiar publicly admitted to taking a second wife.
Aa Gym, who had a strong female following and often preached about family harmony and values, has had to weather a storm of criticism since his admission.
Despite support for the idea from many Muslim figures, the polygamy ban drew opposition from others.
Masdar Farid Mas'udi, a leader in the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdhatul Ulema, said that every man was polygamous by nature.
"Islam only gives a standard of fairness, but it never prohibits it (polygamy). The perception that polygamy only benefits men is not right. Polygamous institutions actually fulfill women's desires and reproductive rights," he told The Jakarta Post.
"Not every man is up to being a husband, unlike women (who make good wives). Therefore, polygamy is nature's way of balancing the supply of women wanting to be wives, with the demand of men who are up to being good husbands."
Legislator Misbach Hidayat said the government had no right to regulate what was clearly allowed by Islam.
"The government should focus on real issues, like corruption cases," he told the detikcom news portal.
The ban if implemented, he argued, would make infidelity more widespread and in turn increase prostitution.
Legislator Yoyoh Yusroh from the Prosperous Justice Party said as a woman, she believed polygamy was allowed by Islam to overcome social problems.
"Polygamy is better than infidelity. Think of a 25-year-old widow -- she will need a husband to finance her children. If polygamy is banned, things would only get worse for her," she told detikcom.
Meanwhile, Din Syamsuddin, who chairs the country's second-largest organization Muhammadiyah, thought it would be better not to talk about the subject at all.
"There are many more important problems faced by this nation. Polygamy is a matter of religious interpretation. The government should not develop this into a political issue and religious figures should not give responses (to the idea)," he told the Post.
Meanwhile, women's activist Lies Marcoes Natsir told Metro TV said rather than banning polygamy, it was more important to increase education campaigns about the bad effects of polygamy on women and children.