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Polygamy in Canada: Legal and Social Implications for Women and Children – A Collection of Policy Research Reports
How Have Policy Approaches to Polygamy Responded to Women's Experiences and Rights? An International, Comparative Analysis
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report seeks to illuminate the ways in which participation in polygamous marriages affects women's social and economic status, as well as their overall health and well-being. It also aims to examine how communities across the globe have responded to polygamy through law and policy. These investigations are undertaken with a view to assessing whether responses to polygamy worldwide adequately address the needs, interests and realities of women living within plural marriages. Based on this analysis, this report presents a series of recommendations as to the
most appropriate approach to polygamy in the Canadian context.
In examining how polygamy affects the lives of women, three main aspects are considered: women's social status, their economic status and their health.
- In regard to social status, four main factors associated with polygamy are considered: rivalry among wives married to the same man (“co-wives”), collaboration and support among co-wives, social isolation, and implications for spousal relationships and gender equality. In addition, this report also considers the impact of polygamy on children, as well as women's relationships with their children.
- With respect to economic status, the circumstances of women in polygamous unions are considered, as are the circumstances of women who might leave their polygamous marriages and/or communities.
- Finally, with respect to women's health, the potential psychological and reproductive health ramifications of polygamous practices are examined.
This analysis reveals that, given the diversity within the global community of women in polygamous marriages, it is extremely difficult to draw a single, unqualified conclusion as
to how women experience polygamy. While some women might suffer socially, economically and health-wise as a result of polygamous life, others might benefit. The way in which a woman experiences polygamy will depend largely on a number of social and cultural factors, such as the number of co-wives she has and her relationship with them, cultural perceptions of polygamy, and her role and responsibilities within her marriage and family.
Effective and equitable strategies for dealing with polygamy must account for this diversity among women in polygamy. Yet, law and policy approaches adopted worldwide have been far less nuanced than this. Most jurisdictions have dealt with domestic polygamous practices in one of three ways:
- explicitly allowing it (primarily in countries where Islamic law is recognized in the area of family/personal law);
- explicitly prohibiting it (typically the case in countries governed by secular civil law); or
- a combination of secular and customary law (typically in states where individuals may opt for customary marriages, which allow polygamy).
A number of jurisdictions have also adopted approaches for dealing with foreign
polygamous marriages. This involves dealing with plural marriages formed abroad, in
countries where polygamy is permitted. Jurisdictions have generally been willing to give
effect to such marriages to grant spouses matrimonial relief. However, most states have
shown considerably less acceptance of polygamy in the context of immigration applications submitted by polygamous family members.
Current legal approaches to polygamy have not responded adequately to the multi-faceted experiences of women in plural marriages. More specifically, global responses appear to be premised on the presumption that polygamy is either universally harmful or benign to women, without any real analytical justification for this. It is argued here that legal and policy approaches in Canada must target factors detrimental to women (such as abuse, poverty, coercion and nefarious health consequences), rather than the practice of polygamy on its own.
Six principles are proposed in this report to guide the formulation of law and policy in this area:
- equality and full respect for all women;
- sensitivity and caution in regard to cultural relativism;
- legal rules considered “as lived” (i.e., the law must be assessed by examining its practical impact on members of a society);
- respect for diversity among women;
- facilitation of meaningful choices by women; and
- keeping families together wherever possible.
Based on these principles, the following specific recommendations are set forth in this report.
- Parliament must revisit the current criminalization of bigamy and polygamy, given that these offences are rarely prosecuted and that the penal consequences that ensue from conviction for such offences risk undermining the rights and interests of women and their children.
- Allegations of abuse within communities and families must be investigated and prosecuted if necessary, regardless of whether the communities and families in question are polygamous.
- Governance of families and communities must not be abdicated to private individuals and institutions, such as community and religious institutions that support polygamy. The state has a responsibility to oversee family and community relationships, to ensure the promotion of equality and the protection of vulnerable persons in these contexts.
- The rights and responsibilities of persons in polygamous marriages living in Canada must be better understood and clarified. The effects of polygamous marriages should be recognized for persons who married in good faith. Yet, where a married person domiciled in Canada marries another spouse abroad, the predicaments faced by women and children in these circumstances must be more carefully considered and addressed.
- Outreach strategies are necessary to inform women about their legal rights and obligations as polygamous spouses. Information must also be disseminated in regard to the potential psychological and reproductive health issues that women in polygamy could face. Finally, information must be made available to these women about resources on which they could rely should they decide to leave their marriages and/or communities.
- Outreach strategies also must ensure that women who leave polygamy can access appropriate residential shelter and counselling for themselves and their children, if necessary.
- Finally, given the complex and abundant issues that polygamy raises, legislative reform on this topic should occur only after the completion of additional research based largely on direct communication with, and the involvement of, women in polygamy
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