Polygamy in Sudan

Quote: A call for more polygamy KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has urged Sudanese men to take more than one wife in order to double the country's population of 30 million. The Sudanese should ignore international family planning policies, Bashir said in a speech to the ruling National Congress Party, shown on state television Tuesday night. He said Sudan needed more people for development, since it is Africa's biggest country and rich in resources. ``We should achieve this aim by having many wives,'' Bashir said. Men in mainly Muslim Sudan are allowed up to four wives, according to Islamic Sharia law, which Bashir's government promotes. Rebels opposed to Sharia in non-Muslim south Sudan have been fighting for autonomy since 1983. But a divorce under Islamic law is not considered sufficient in British law, and people wishing to remarry must get a document known as a decree absolute before they can do so. Some Muslim women, badly advised by lawyers ignorant of this, are therefore committing bigamy when they remarry - an offence punishable by seven years' imprisonment. One lawyer told the BBC that over the last two years he had intervened in a dozen cases. In some instances, bigamy had taken place. Trying to find the extent of the problem is likely to be the subject of a second report. Researchers are now calling on all judges and lawyers to be given training in basic Muslim law, so people can get proper legal advice. Sonianurin Shah-Kazemi, of the University of Westminster, said it was essential that lawyers should be made aware of crucial differences between British and Muslim law. "It is very important that those training to become lawyers and those already in the profession are given adequate knowledge about Muslim family law, the situation of conflicts of law. "This is very easy to do, it could just involve doing an extra lecture a week."