Ex-Vice-Minister of Agriculture promotes polygamy in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s former Vice-Minister of Agriculture of Marat Tolibayev has declared his support to polygamy. He offered to legalize plural marriages in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports referring to his post on his Facebook page. "Legalization of polygamy is brought up for discussion from time to time in our country. The is a reasons for it. There are more women in Kazakhstan than men. This means that many women are unable to find husbands and have to stay lonely and miserable. Where as those who get into relationships with married men, are in disadvantageous legal situation, because they are not lawful wives and they and their children have no inheritance rights. This happens because our law states that a person can't marry if he is already lawfully married to someone," he said. He believes it is a sold ground for legalization of plural marriages in Kazakhstan. "But several conditions have to be met: firstly of all, all the participants of the relationships -- the husband, the 1st wife or wives and the new wife -- have to provide their consent to the new marriage. Everybody must know about each other and agree with such relationships; secondly, in order to provide gender equality, polyandry should also be legalized. This means that women should have a right to marry several husbands as well as men to have several wives. Polyandry cases will be rare in Kazakhstan, but still it is very important to legalize this opportunity," Tolibayev pointed out. He stressed that was aware his call for legalization of polygamy in Kazakhstan would cause a wave of critics. "People of then say that legalization polygamy would break up families. I disagree with this statement. If a man brings his second wife to his family with full consent of his first wife (wives), then there will be not family break up. If he gets no consent, he cannot have the new wife. It is foolish to expect laws to keep a family together of break it apart. Families are broken up lack of love and mutual understanding, not by legalization of polygamy," Tolibayev said. "Many people see no need to legalize polygamy saying that it exists anyway. There are families with actual polygamy in Kazakhstan. This proves me right. Since the polygamy actually exists in Kazakhstan already, then what we are afraid of? Making the second marriage legal we will give the younger wife and her children confidence in their future. The women and their children are the ones who benefit from legalization of polygamy, not the men," the former Vice-Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan said. According to the diplomat who used to be Vice-Minister of Agriculture in Kazakhstan until December 2013, some people believes that legalization of polygamy would push Kazakhstan back into the Middle Age. "The society is evolving and its attitude to certain things can change at any point of its development, polygamy is not an attribute of any specific stage of evolution. I think that it would be a step forwards to give people more freedom of choice," Tolibayev said.