Eritrea orders men to marry two wives or be jailed

Eritrean men have been asked by the
government to marry more than one wife or risk
being jailed for life.
This is contained in a statement in Arabic by
the Grand Mufti (the highest official of religious
law in the country) which scanned copy
surfaced on social media sites on Thursday last
week.
In the statement, Eritrea called for all men in
the country to marry at least two wives and the
government assured the men that it would pay
for the marriage ceremonies and houses.
According to the government, the order is
because there is an acute shortage of men
occasioned by causalities during the civil war
with Ethiopia.
Afkinsider.com said the document, which could
not be independently verified, warned that any
man or woman who opposes the decision “will
face a life sentence”.
The The document in Arabic , which is in Arabic,
says, “Based on the law of God in polygamy,
and given the circumstances which the country
is experiencing in terms of men shortage, the
Eritrean department of Religious Affairs has
decided on the following:
“First that every man shall marry at least two
women and the man who refuses to do so shall
be subjected to life imprisonment with hard
labour.
“The woman who tries to prevent her husband
from marrying another wife shall be punished to
life imprisonment.”
More than 150,000 Eritrean soldiers were killed
during the secession war from Ethiopia between
1998 and 2000. At the time Eritrea had about
four million people.
Eritrea, is a country in theHorn of Africa. With
its capital at Asmara, it is bordered by Sudan in
the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in
the southeast. The northeastern and eastern
parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline
along the Red Sea, across from Saudi
Arabia and Yemen.
The nation has a total area of approximately
117,600 km, and includes the Dahlak
Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands.
Its name Eritrea is based on the Greek name for
the Red Sea, which was first adopted for Italian
Eritrea in 1890.
The country ranks that worst (189 out of 189)
on the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business
index.