Eritrean men are being threatened with jail unless they marry more than one wife, reports say. A statement allegedly issued by the government of Eritrea is reportedly ordering men to marry at least two wives due to an acute shortage of men occasioned by causalities during the civil war with Ethiopia.
A copy of a scanned decision of the Grand Mufti surfaced on the social media site on Thursday last week and showed the State of Eritrea calling for all men in the country to marry at least two wives and the government assuring that it will pay for the marriage ceremonies and houses.
The document, which could not be independently verified, says any man or woman who oppose the decision “will face a life sentence”.
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The Document |
“Based on the law of God in polygamy, and given the circumstances in 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.
The country is ranked 189 out of 189 by world bank as the worst place in the world to do business.
