From the category archives:

News

Talking polygamy

by Staff on February 4, 2010

ST. GEORGE – Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told a crowd of approximately 300 during a town hall meeting at the Dixie Center on Thursday that the state does not have plans to follow Texas’ lead by conducting a raid of polygamist communities.

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Does Polygamy Work?

by Staff on November 15, 2009

Last month I made my way to Rawang, a town some 50 kilometres from KL city, to meet up with the club founder and some of her followers and family members. It was one of the most unusual interviews I have ever done.

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Malaysian Gov. Says Polygamy Can Help Single Moms

by Staff on November 15, 2009

Life is not easy for a single mother, I’ve heard. Dating is a pain, making ends meet is a pain, providing a good masculine influence for both son and daughter is a pain. But the government doesn’t want just any old Muslim dudes to take these ladies off the market. They want guys who have solid government jobs and presumably some level of accountability.

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More Wives = Less Adultery and Prostitution?

by Staff on November 14, 2009

The issue of polygamy is being hotly debated now, with the controversial Kelantan official’s suggestion and the emergence of a Polygamy Club founded in August by the wife of a polygamist.

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Texas Judge Limits Some Records In FLDS Trial Over Polygamy References

by admin on November 4, 2009

A Texas judge will require the state to redact references to certain people and multiple marriages involving Raymond Merril Jessop from numerous documents it plans to use during his trial.

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Is Polygamy Good For Women?

by Staff on November 2, 2009

The conservative Islamic party has called for Muslim men in the country to marry single mothers instead of “young virgin girls,” said a state official. Al-Arabiya news channel quoted Wan Ubaidah, head of women, family and health affairs in a northern state, remarking that although Malaysian men usually prefer young and virgin girls as their additional wives, this new proposal would help single mothers and widows who are finding it hard to raise their kids.

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Half a Good Man Is Better Than None All

by Staff on October 31, 2009

Women say that the legalization 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.

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Officials Suggest Legislators Wed Single Mothers

by Staff on October 29, 2009

Malaysian legislators in the poor conservative Muslim northeastern state of Kelantan should marry single mothers to help care for their children, a state representative suggested.

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Defining Polygamy’s Place In Law

by Staff on October 26, 2009

British Columbia’s attorney general decided last week to turn to the Supreme Court of B.C. for an opinion on whether that law was constitutionally valid.

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Appropriating Feminism in Advocating Polygamy

Polygamy, alongside housewifery and pornography, is just one of the few issues women continue to struggle to define as either feminist or not. And so a belief in ending oppression in all its many guises should be the compass of every feminist who finds herself lost. To end, I leave you with Hatijah Aam saying that polygamy should be something beautiful, rather than something disgusting. I say, fair enough–keeping in mind that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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Historian Reveals Plural Marriage Positives In Logan Talk

“The value of polygamy was that it allowed the woman to have her agency in a very distinctive way. It had a sense of community and of individual agency,” he explained. “The thing that I’ve been amazed at in studying Mormon history is that so many of the women were such strong-willed, capable women, which they felt came out of the polygamy.”

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Survey Finds Increase In Polygamous Communities

An new informal survey by a Utah-based polygamy advocacy group estimates 38,000 people believe in or are living the practice – an increase of about 1,000 in about two years.
The survey by Principle Voices includes adults and children in polygamous and monogamous families who consider themselves fundamentalist Mormons.

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Polygamists Seek Decriminalization Of Their Lifestyle

During a conference Friday on polygamy and the law, representatives from the Utah Attorney General’s Office, defense attorneys and pro-polygamy activists met at Snowbird to talk about decriminalization and other issues. “We need a test case. We need it decriminalized. People need to see that there are families out there that would be a good representation of the plural communities and we just live our lives like everybody else and that’s the only law we break.”

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South African Man Marries 4 Women At Same Time

South African law recognizes traditional polygamous marriages — even President Jacob Zuma has three wives. Yet while polygamy remains common among several tribes including the Zulus and Swazis, simultaneous weddings are rare.

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Polygamy Club Woos Malaysia

Polygamy is legal for Muslims in Malaysia, though not widespread. The Ashaari clan believes it should be. Last month it launched a “Polygamy Club” that claims the noble aim of helping single mothers, reformed prostitutes and women who feel they are past the marrying age.

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Women in Bountiful Have More Power Than You Think

Bountiful women whom she has interviewed are clear thinking, resourceful and in some cases well educated. Not to be underestimated. They “cast Bountiful as a heterogeneous and dynamic social and political space,” Prof. Campbell wrote in, “Bountiful Voices” an academic paper written earlier this year, “where at least some women are able to wield considerable authority in their marriages, families and community. Their stories thus seem inconsistent, at least to some degree, with pre-existing presumptions about polygamy and its harms for women set forth in conventional public discourse.”

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Polygamy Charges in Bountiful, B.C., Thrown Out

A B.C. court has thrown out polygamy charges against two religious leaders, ruling former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal was wrong to ask a third special prosecutor to take the case after the first two prosecutors decided the men should not be charged.

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