War-ravaged Chechnya needs polygamy, says its leader

[emad]

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 14 January 2006


Russia's idiosyncratic loyalist strongman in Chechnya has said he wants to legalise polygamy and allow men to take up to four wives because there aren't enough males to go round due to over a decade of war.

Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's acting Prime Minister, said the number of women in Chechnya was between 9 and 18 per cent higher than the number of men, and argued that polygamy was a practical way of replenishing the republic's war-ravaged population. "I think that it is necessary because we are at war. It is very important for the Chechen people. Shariah law allows this, it does not run counter to it. Therefore, each man who can provide for four wives should do it."

Chechnya, a largely Muslim republic, has been embroiled in a brutal on-off war of secession with Russia since 1994. The human rights group Memorial says 75,000 Russian and Chechen civilians have died since then, most of them men.

Mr Kadyrov, 29, has a wife and five children, and is the son of a former pro-Moscow president of Chechnya who was killed in a bomb attack.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article338474.ece

[emad]

1. I guess if he said 'polyandry' he might not get so many votes

next time round...

[Cerridwen]

2. Send the women to India, China and other countries who are

experiencing a "surprising shortage" of women.

:sarcasm:

:nuke:

[Matariki]

5. i was thinking something similar

bring in some chinese "guest" <strike>workers</strike> husbands. i'm sort of afraid of a country like china with a 5-1 proportion of men - at some point that's going to build up a lot of 'biological tension' that might get sublimated into military action.

[ljaycox]

10. There is little doubt about this..

Reproductive control allied with old prejudices against female children are producing strong and dangerous sex skewing in some of these populations. Let's just say a high skew in favor of men has not seen as conducive to peace. I think polygamy in the Muslim world is producing too many men without access to women, and may be contributing to radicalizing them.

[Ready4Change]

3. What, you think marriage will be a barrier?

Sorry, much though we like to think otherwise, marriage is not a barrier to a woman having children by multiple men. Nor does it stop men from fathering children by multiple mothers. And populations can rise quite quickly all on their own, so long as parents can bear more than 2 children and health care can ensure those children will survive to adulthood.

Or is it just that guys in Chechnya want harems? Oh. Never mind. :eyes:

[leesa]

4. I think this is the origin of all of those religious prohibitions against

homosexuality (if you actually want to interpret them that way...men not lying with men, etc.)or exhortations to take multiple women is for situations like this when lack of men due to warring or dangerously low populations have caused fear that the tribe would die out.

Nothing to do with morality, just practicality.

[Matariki]

6. isn't this the deep biological motive of war for men?

to get rid of other 'sperm donors' and have access to more women?

[baby_bear]

12. Here I thought it was oil

and it was sperm all the time!

silly me

b_b

[SoCalDem]

14. and to populate the area with "their kind"..

Perhaps a better choice would to quit having wars....and hey.. maybe fewer males is not such a bad thing, eh?

[pinerow]

7. I would start by not blowing up so many young men...

and I'm sure the women of Chechnya are keen on the idea of polygamy.

[Porcupine]

8. They could start by finding Chechen Women and Men jobs

isn't there a bit of rebuilding to do?

[MrPrax]

9. The PM watches to many movies...

I assume 'Russia's idiosyncratic loyalist strongman" (he work's in the circus, no?) watched Dr Strangelove.



Strangelove:

Well, that would not be necessary Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross section of necessary skills. Of course it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. (Slams down left fist. Right arm rises in stiff Nazi salute.)
Arrrrr!
(Restrains right arm with left.)
Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. But ah with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present gross national product within say, twenty years.

[newblewtoo]

13. great quote and pic n/t

[LeftCoast]

11. "Mars Needs Women"

Mars Needs Women

That's all I could think about when I read that headline. I must be in a wierd Sat mood. :)