Hidden within the dense canopies of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest resides the Zo’é tribe, a community that challenges conventional societal norms. First sustained contact with outsiders occurred in 1987, revealing a society that thrives without formal leadership and embraces complex marital structures.

Society without hierarchy

In Zo’é culture, equality is paramount. The tribe operates without designated leaders; decisions are made collectively, ensuring that every voice holds weight. While articulate individuals, known as ‘yü,’ may influence discussions on matters like marriage or community relocation, they do not possess authoritative power over others. This absence of hierarchy fosters a harmonious environment where cooperation prevails.

Co-existence of polygamy and polyandry

The Zo’é’s approach to marriage is notably distinct. Both men and women have the freedom to engage in multiple marital relationships, practicing polygamy and polyandry without societal judgment. It’s common for a woman with several daughters to marry multiple men, some of whom may later wed one of her daughters. This intricate web of relationships is accepted and integrated into their social fabric.

Daily life

The Zo’é are semi-nomadic, residing in large, open-sided thatched houses that accommodate multiple families. They are adept hunters and gatherers, with men excelling in hunting game like monkeys and peccaries, while women participate in gathering and raising captured animals as pets. Agriculture also plays a role, with gardens producing manioc, tubers, peppers, and bananas.

Challenges and preservation

Despite their isolation, the Zo’é have faced challenges due to external contact, including exposure to diseases and cultural disruptions.

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The Zo’é tribe exemplifies a societal structure where equality and complex marital arrangements coexist harmoniously. Their unique way of life challenges conventional notions of leadership and marriage.

PNN

New Delhi: At the upcoming session of the Assam Assembly in February 2024, a bill to outlaw polygamy will be introduced, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced.

According to him, after months of consultation with several people and organisations, the bill has been developed.

“The bill to ban polygamy will be placed on the Assam assembly floor, which will commence from February 4,” Sarma told reporters in the national capital Friday.

The Chief Minister had previously declared that the measure would include certain provisions aimed at putting an end to love jihad within the state.

Officials reported that in response to a public notice seeking comments on the proposed law prohibiting the practice of multiple marriages, the state administration had received as many as 149 recommendations.

They added that 146 of these recommendations supported the measure, demonstrating the broad support of the public. Three organizations have stated that they are against the bill.

On August 21, the state administration published a notice asking for public input about the prohibition of polygamy.

The notification asked people of Assam to send in their opinions via mail or email by August 30.

In addition, the state government established an expert group to investigate the legislative authority of the Assam state legislature to pass such a law.

After conferring with various individuals and groups, the committee presented its report to Sarma, reaffirming that the state legislature possesses the authority to pass such legislation.

Guwahati: The Assam government has constituted a four-member expert committee to examine the legislative competence of the state legislature to enact a law to end polygamy, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The panel, headed by Justice (Retired) Rumi Phookan, has been asked to submit its report within two months, the chief minister said in a tweet Thursday night.

Other members of the committee are Assam advocate general Debajit Saikia, additional advocate general Nalin Kohli and senior advocate Nekibur Zaman.

“Following my announcement to form an expert committee to examine the legislative competence of state legislature to enact a law to end polygamy, the state government has constituted the committee today…The committee has been given a deadline of 60 days to submit its report,” the chief minister said on the microblogging site.

Sarma had announced Tuesday that the state government would set up an expert committee of legal luminaries to scrutinise the legality of banning polygamy in the state by the legislative assembly.

He had also said that the proposed panel would examine the provisions of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937 along with Article 25 of the Constitution in relation to the Directive Principles of State Policy for a Uniform Civil Code.

Article 25 gives freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion to the citizens of India.

“We are not going towards Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for which a national consensus will be required, and the central government will take an initiative in this regard,” Sarma had said at a press conference May 9 to mark the completion of two years of his government.

UCC is a “much wider aspect” and in Assam, “we are announcing our intention to ban polygamy in the state as one component of the UCC “, he had said.

PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said Thursday it will set up a fresh five-judge Constitution bench at an “appropriate stage” to hear pleas challenging the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala was urged by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, who has filed a PIL on the issue, that section 494 of the Indian Penal Code allows polygamy, halala etc. and needs to be struck down.

“I will consider it. At an appropriate stage, I will constitute a constitution bench,” the CJI responded.

Last year August 30 a five-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, M M Sundresh and Sudhanshu Dhulia had made the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) parties to the PILs and sought their responses.

Justice Banerjee and Justice Gupta retired on September 23 and October 6 last year respectively giving rise to the need for re-constitution of the bench to hear as many as eight petitions against the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.

Upadhyay, in his PIL, has sought a direction to declare polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ unconstitutional and illegal.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, ‘nikah halala’ deals with the process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to re-marry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another person and get a divorce from him after consummation.

The apex court had in July 2018 considered the plea and referred the matter to a Constitution bench already tasked with hearing a batch of similar petitions.

PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday said that it will set up a five-judge Constitution bench to hear pleas challenging the constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ practice among Muslims.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha took note of the submissions of lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, who has filed one of the PILs on the issue, that a fresh five-judge bench needed to be constituted as two judges of the previous constitution bench — Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Hemant Gupta — have retired.

“There are very important matters which are pending before a five-judge bench. We will constitute one and bear this matter in mind,” the CJI said. The matter was earlier mentioned November 2, last year also by Upadhyay.

On August 30, last year, a five-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee, Hemant Gupta, Surya Kant, M M Sundresh, and Sudhanshu Dhulia made the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW), and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) parties to the PILs and sought their responses.

Later, Justice Banerjee and Justice Gupta retired September 23 and October 16 this year respectively giving rise to the need for re-constitution of the bench to hear as many as eight petitions against the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’.

Upadhyay, in his PIL, has sought a direction to declare polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ unconstitutional and illegal.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, ‘nikah halala’ deals with the process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to re-marry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another person and get a divorce from him after the consummation.

The apex court had in July 2018 considered the plea and referred the matter to a Constitution bench already tasked with hearing a batch of similar petitions.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Monday sought the Centre’s stand on a PIL to declare that bigamy or polygamy by a Muslim husband in the absence of prior written consent of the existing wife or wives and arrangements for her accommodation and maintenance is unconstitutional and illegal.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla directed the respondents to file their response and issued notice on the petition that sought a direction to the authorities to regulate bigamy and polygamy by Muslim husbands by providing for prior permission of existing wife, a certificate from a judicial officer to certify that he has the capacity to provide equal treatment to all wives, declaration of marital history before nikah, etc.

The petitioner also sought the framing of laws for compulsory registration of Muslim marriages.

The petitioner Reshma, whose husband is stated to be “planning to divorce” her and solemnise another marriage without her consent or making arrangements for her and their child’s maintenance, claimed that bigamy or polygamy by a Muslim husband is permitted under Shariat laws only in exceptional circumstances and ought to be regulated to curb the plight of Muslim women.

She contended that bigamy or polygamy without the consent of the existing wife and securing her well-being is “unconstitutional, anti-Shariat, illegal, arbitrary, harsh, inhuman, and barbaric” and contrary to Articles 14, 15, 21, and 25 of the Constitution.

“Even in countries governed by Shariah (Islamic) law, the second marriage is permitted under special circumstances, such as an illness of the first wife or her inability to bear children. In these cases, with the first wife’s consent, a man may marry again and this is referred to as Polygamy, a subset of polygamous marriages,” said the petition filed through lawyer Bajrang Vats.

“The Holy Quran permits a Muslim man to marry more than one woman at a time (up to a maximum of four) but does not encourage such behaviour. Polygamy is only permitted in certain circumstances, such as when the death of another man has left his wife with no other means of support,” it added.

The petitioner has further stated that polygamy is neither mandatory nor encouraged but is merely permitted as a part of social duty and for charitable motives and that the Holy Quran provides that those men who choose to take multiple wives are under an obligation to treat them equally.

“It is unfortunate that regressive practices derogatory to women, who constitute one half of the Indian population, are being followed, propagated, and encouraged in the name of religion. Such practice, regressive to rights of women and which directly come into conflict with the Constitutional and Fundamental Rights of citizens cannot be encouraged,” the petition has said.

The matter would be heard next August 23.

PTI 

At present, no one can think of having eight wives and all residing in one house? You might feel jealous and think it is impossible, but there is a man named Ong Dam Sorot in Thailand, who is enjoying all of it. Ong has eight wives and they all live together.

According to a report, Ong Dam Sorot is a tattoo artist by profession. He shot to fame after appearing on a TV show. Actually, Ong narrated the story in the show. The video has been viewed by more than three million times on YouTube, the report said.

He said that his wives get along with each other quite well and all of them share a “harmonious family relationship together.”

He told that he met his first wife Nong Sprite at a friend’s wedding, second wife Nong L in the market. Third wife in the hospital. Fourth wife was found on Instagram, fifth wife on Facebook and sixth wife on Tiktok. He had met his seventh wife while going to the temple with his mother and last one he met while holidaying in Pattaya.

According to the report, Ong’s wives are also very happy with him. All his wives agreed that Ong is very caring and takes great care of them, behaves well and there is no question of rife.

When asked why the women chose to marry a man who was already married, all women agreed that they fell “madly in love with him,” the report said.

PNN 

Cuttack: A man of Salepur area in Cuttack district was Friday arrested by the Commissionerate Police for practicing polygamy.

The arrested man has been identified as Krushna Chandra Nayak. He had married two women during the lockdown period alone.

According to a source, Nayak works as an art teacher at a school in Salepur area. His first marriage was solemnized in 2001. Seven years after the first marriage, he had married for the second time in 2008.

During the nationwide lockdown period, he had exchanged garlands with two more women. Before he could cheat more women, his first and third wives came to know about their husband cheating on them.

They had lodged a police report at the Mahila police station in Cuttack town. Registering a case under Sections 493A, 323, 294, 494, 500, 34 of the IPC and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, the police had launched a probe.

PNN

Jeypore: A woman from Koraput district Thursday lodged an FIR at the Jeypore Town police seeking action against her husband, alleging that he was already married to over 20 women.

The woman alleged that her husband lied about his relationships with other women. She said that as his husband believes in polygamy  he had married many women before and after their marriage. In total the accused husband has more than 20 wives.

The woman also has a daughter from the man. Her daughter also complained before the media that the man is the mastermind behind fake currency circulation in the district and a cheater.

“When I brought this issue up with my mother-in-law, she said her son can have any number of affairs as he was a patriarch,” rued the victim woman.

She also alleged that her husband had an illegal affair with some girl of the town.

However, the man whose marriages now are the talk of the town has been identified as Prabhat Chetti.

However, Jeypore police launched a probe in this regard based on the complaint of the woman.

PNN

New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) moved Monday the Supreme Court seeking impleadment in petitions challenging constitutional validity of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ practised among Muslims.

The application has been filed to oppose a batch of petitions on which the apex court had in 2018 issued notices to the Centre and other stakeholders while referring the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, ‘nikah halala’ stipulates that a Muslim woman, who wants to remarry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another man and get divorce from him after consummating the marriage.

The two issues had arisen when the apex court was dealing with the practice of triple talaq. By a 3:2 verdict, a five-judge Constitution bench August 22, 2017 had banned the 1,400 year-old practice among Sunni Muslims saying it was against the basic tenets of the Holy Quran and violated the Islamic law Shariat.

The top court had then made it clear that it would deal separately with the issues of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ at a later stage.

The AIMPLB plea Monday said the apex court has already dealt with the issue of these practices in its verdict of 1997 in which it had declined to entertain the petitions.

“That personal laws do not derive their validity on the ground that they have been passed or made by a legislature or by other competent authority. The fundamental source of personal laws is their respective scriptural texts,” the AIMPLB plea said.

“The Mohammedan law is founded essentially on the holy Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet Mohammed and thus it can’t fall within purview of expression ‘laws in force’ as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution and hence its validity cannot be tested,” the plea further said.

The plea of the Personal Law Board said that Article 44 of the Constitution stipulates that the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

“It is submitted that Article 44, which envisages a Uniform Civil Code is only a directive principle of state policy and is not enforceable,” the plea stated.

Questioning the locus standi of BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhaya for filing a PIL challenging polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ practices, the AIMPLB said that it is of the view that ordinarily, any person other than a member of a religious denomination should not be allowed to question the faith of another religious denomination.

“A member of a religious denomination belonging to that faith, in the event of any violation of their fundamental rights, only to the extent of a threat to life and liberty, may be permitted to seek the protection of the court and determine the issues of faith arising therefrom,” the petition pointed out.

PTI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear after the winter break the pleas challenging practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims.

The issue was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant which said the matter cannot be heard immediately and will be listed on reopening of the apex court after winter break in January 2020.

The plea was mentioned by advocate and BJP politician Ashwini Upadhyay, who has sought a direction to declare polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims as unconstitutional and illegal.

The apex court in July 2018 had considered the plea and it referred the matter to a Constitution bench which has been already asked to hear a batch of similar petitions.

The apex court had issued notice to the Centre on the petition filed by one Farjana and tagged Upadhyay’s plea along with a batch of petitions to be heard by the constitution bench.

“Petitioner is filing this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus to declare polygamy and nikah halala, practised in Muslim community, illegal and unconstitutional for being violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution,” the plea said.

The petition by the lawyer further sought a declaration that extra-judicial talaq is a cruelty under Section 498A of the IPC, nikah halala is an offence under Section 375 of the IPC, and polygamy is an offence under Section 494 of the IPC, 1860.

While polygamy allows a Muslim man to have four wives, ‘nikah halala’ is a process in which a Muslim woman, who wants to re-marry her husband after divorce, has to first marry another person and get a divorce from the second person after consummating the marriage.

The pleas were referred to a larger bench by the Supreme Court after an earlier five-judge Constitution bench, in its 2017 verdict, had kept open the issue of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’, while quashing the practice of ‘triple talaq’.

The bench had also issued notices to the Law and Justice Ministry, the Minority Affairs Ministry and the National Commission of Women (NCW) at that time.

Some petitions have also challenged the practices of ‘Nikah Mutah’ and ‘Nikah Misyar’ – two types of temporary marriages where duration of the relationship is specified and agreed upon in advance.

In one of the petitions, one Sameena Begum has said that by virtue of Muslim Personal Law and Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code (marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife) was rendered inapplicable to Muslims and no married woman from the community has the avenue of filing a complaint against her husband for the offence of bigamy.

Another plea was filed by one Rani alias Sabnam who alleged that she and her three minor kids have been thrown out of the matrimonial home after her husband re-married. She has sought that the practices of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims be declared unconstitutional. A similar plea was filed by Delhi-based Nafisa Khan seeking almost same reliefs.

PTI

Uttar Pradesh: With a population of around 3,000 people, Lakhimpur Kheri’s Fattepur village is better off than many other villages in Uttar Pradesh. The reason is that many of the people here are in government jobs.

Well, that alone doesn’t make it famous. Its fame comes from its best kept secret: Polygamy- the concept of having two to three wives. Almost every man in this village has married twice or even thrice.

People who work have two houses- one in the village and another at workplace. They have wife at both places. Interestingly, there also families where two wives have a peaceful co-existence.

The reason of second marriage is respect, the villagers say. Though the reasons for second marriage differ in most of the cases, men want to carry on this tradition to earn more respect in the village, locals said.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday refused to give an early hearing on a plea that challenged the constitutional validity of the practice of polygamy and ‘nikah halala’ among Muslims in India.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the court was not in a position to set up a Constitution Bench any time soon.

In July last year, the top court had referred the matter to a larger bench to hear a bunch of petitions related to polygamy.

BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay sought early hearing in his plea challenging the practice of polygamy, nikah halala, nikah mutah (temporary marriage among Shias) and nikah misyar (short-term marriage among Sunnis), saying they violated the Constitution’s Articles 14, 15 and 21.

Article 14 guarantees equality before law, Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and Article 21 guarantees protection of life and personal liberty.

Saying that though different religious communities were governed by different personal laws, Upadhyay contended that ‘personal laws must meet the test of constitutional validity and constitutional morality in as much as they cannot be violative of Articles 14, 15, 21’.

Under nikah halala, if a Muslim woman after being divorced by her husband three times at different instances wants to go back to him, she has to marry another person and then divorce the second husband to get re-married to her first husband.

IANS

While marrying a second wife might land a man in jail in other parts of India, women of this village in Rajasthan encourage their husbands to go for second marriage for a strange reason that will leave you amused.

Yes, you heard right. This might sound untrue and strange, but it is true. Women of Derasar, a small village situated in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, allow their husband for second marriage.

With a population of about 600 people, almost every man living in this village has two wives

People in this village believe that men need to marry twice to have children. Villagers allege that there have been many instances when men could not have babies with their first wife, but were able to have babies with their second wife.

One such man had three children with his second wife after failing to get a child with his first wife. Such incidents have made villagers to believe that men will only have children with their second wife.

Another strange reason to marry twice is that women have to walk over five kilometres to bring water for their house. A woman cannot travel so much after getting pregnant, so the man marries another girl who can engage in household chores for the family, along with going for long walks to bring water. The ritual of marrying two women has been going on in the village for ages.

PNN