Debate on polygamy bill suspended

Ever since the polygamy amendment was added to the bill four years ago, it has caused widespread opposition among secular women’s rights activists, care workers, sociologists, lawyers and other experts, as well as female MPs of various political tendencies.

Shahrzadnews:As Iran's 9th parliamentary elections approach, and in the face of a widening rifts between MPs and the government, the Majles (parliamentary) legal committee has temporarily postponed further debate on the Family Protection Bill, which seeks to legalise polygamy.

Ever since the polygamy amendment was added to the bill four years ago, it has caused widespread opposition among secular women’s rights activists, care workers, sociologists, lawyers and other experts, as well as female MPs of various political tendencies.

The reaction from female conservative MPs has been most virulent. In spite of their profound religious and ideological attachment to the regime, the spectre of their own husbands opting for a polygamous marriage has fired them.

In a meeting one such MP had recently with a group of women’s activists who oppose the bill, she said the main supporters of the amendment “are the fifty or sixty parliamentarians who already have several wives themselves.”

During long parliamentary debates on the issue, national opposition to it has grown, from both government agencies and the general public, which condemns the practice as archaic and inhumane. Iran’s powerful middle class and civilian society in particular has been in the vanguard of opposing the restoration of an Islamic tradition which all but disappeared years ago. In doing so they have taken advantage of current political infighting between various factions within the regime.

The Majles legal committee announced the suspension of debate on the bill “until further notice.” Observers believe that conservatives hope to floor it again after the February 2012 parliamentary elections.

Source: Shahrzad News