Islamic scholars find it impossible to legalize polygamy in Chechnya

The proposal of an official from Ramzan Kadyrov's retinue to legalize polygamy in the Muslim republics of Russia is legally impossible, the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" believe.

A proposal to legalize polygamy in the Muslim regions of Russia was made by Mansur Soltaev, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and of the Human Rights Council under the head of Chechnya. Soltaev's statement was published on October 1 by the edition named "Chechnya Today".

Mr Soltaev has justified his position by stating that "the demographic situation in our country is depressing," and the current state measures to support the birth rate are rather inefficient.

"In Russia, the legalization of Islamic marriage and its equating with the state one is impossible, as it will create legal deadlocks and force to revise, or even re-write the entire civil law," said Mikhail Roschin, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

However, Mr Roschin has confirmed that in reality, in the Muslim regions of Russia, including Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, polygamy is practiced.

According to his version, it is theoretically possible to legalize polygamy in individual republics, if to recognize their special legal status – it will make it possible to introduce special laws for such territories. However, in practice, such changes will require a large-scale restructuring of the entire legislation, which is difficult to enforce. "And in the short term, this is unattainable," Mr Roschin has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 9, 2019 at 04:31 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.