Central Asian governments have welcomed Chinese investment in infrastructure
Once one of the most powerful men in Kazakhstan, Rakhat Aliev is now in exile
In Tajikistan, men can only have one wife by law, but the idea of legalizing polygamy was raised following the country's 1992-97 civil war (file photo)
Proponents of legalizing polygamy say the new bill will help improve the demographic situation in the country. They cite Islamic customs, which allow Muslim men to marry up to four wives. And they say the new bill would give more rights to the wives and children of polygamous husbands.
Tangribergan Berdyungarov, a Kazakh parliamentarian, says the legislature is likely to hold a session soon to consider the issue. “The proposed bill is named ‘On Marriage and Family.’ There have been unofficial talks to legalize polygamy in Kazakhstan," he says. "I believe every deputy has his or her own opinion on the matter, and it will be reflected in the voting.”
If Polygamy, Then Polyandry
Berdyungarov tells RFE/RL that he opposes the new bill. He has many supporters in parliament -- mostly women like deputy Bahyt Syzdykova, who calls the issue “nonsense.”
Speaking at a televised roundtable in Astana on May 7, Syzdykova said she would propose legalizing polyandry -- allowing women to marry more than one man -- if parliament legalizes polygamy. “After all, men and women in our country have equal rights according to our constitution,” she said. Syzdykova added that there is more need for a law giving greater rights to children born out of wedlock than any legalization of polygamy.
A woman from the city of Almaty voices a similar opinion. “Many women have become the second or third wives, but neither they nor their children have rights," she says. "I don’t want to see the word ‘polygamy’ [in the new law], but I would like to see that men have obligations and are held responsible for all their relationships and the children born outside [official] marriages.”
Polygamy has been practiced in Central Asian Muslim societies for centuries. Even during the Soviet era, some men took more than one wife, although only the first marriage was considered legal.
Kazakhstan decriminalized polygamy in 1998, but it remains a crime in the four other Central Asian countries. A man can face up to two years in prison for having more than one wife, but the practice is rarely prosecuted.
'Bring Happiness'
The Kazakh parliament has held debates on legalizing it several times in the last decade. The first initiative came from the League of Muslim Women of Kazakhstan. Amina Abdukarim Qyzy, the organization’s leader, has said that polygamy would increase the country's population and "bring happiness to many men and women."
A 2004 poll by the “Express K” daily suggested that some 40 percent of Kazakh men supported legalizing polygamy. In the same poll, more than 73 percent of women said they wanted to be the only wife of their husband. Only 22 percent of women said they would not oppose living in a polygamous marriage, but only if wives lived in separate apartments and were equally and adequately provided for by a husband.
Murat Kulimbet, deputy editor in chief of “Kazakhstan Eylderi” magazine, supports legalizing polygamy. He says up to 30 percent of men in the country’s south, where Islamic traditions have always been stronger, have more than one wife.
Polygamy has become more popular in Central Asia as people have returned to Islamic traditions following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Through "nikah," or Islamic marriage, a Muslim man can take up to four wives with the consent of his current wives and if he is financially able to provide equally and fairly for new wives and children. Nikah, however, has no legal force in the region's secular states. Therefore, in the case of divorce or the death of a husband, the second and third wives of the man and their children have no rights.
In recent years, Muslim-dominated societies from Azerbaijan to Russia’s Bashkortostan to Central Asia have seen attempts to legalize polygamy, but parliaments have always rejected them.
Benefits Of Legalization
In Kazakhstan and Russia, polygamy proponents say it would help raise sagging birthrates and stave off demographic crisis. In other countries, such as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where thousands of men go abroad in search of work amid high unemployment at home, some people say the wives and children of those men who do not return would benefit from the legalization of polygamy.
In Tajikistan, the idea was raised after the bloody 1992-97 civil war, when the number of men decreased significantly. A group of Tajik women -- mostly the wives of polygamous husbands -- wrote a letter to the country's parliament, asking for their status to be legitimized.
Most observers see a direct correlation between polygamy and economic welfare. Many women agree to become the second or third wives of relatively wealthy men, as they are not financially able to provide for themselves. There is also reportedly an increasing number of cases where men take young girls as their second or third wife from parents who can barely make ends meet. The parents often give their daughters away for a financial reward.
“There may be a need for [polygamy] only among the rich in Uzbekistan," says an Uzbek man working in Kazakhstan. "Nowadays, most families can hardly make ends meet, and millions of Uzbeks work in Russia and Kazakhstan. I don’t think [legalizing polygamy] is an urgent issue in Uzbekistan. Well, not from men’s point of view.”
The Halk Maslahaty has anywhere between 2,500 and 3,000 "members"
A constitutional commission will draft the changes at the request of the State Commission for Constitutional Reforms, which is headed by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
Expected amendments include lengthening the presidential term and otherwise enhancing the already-powerful presidency, as well as scrapping a rubberstamp superlegislature known as the Halk Maslahaty (People's Council) in favor of a more transparent but long-marginalized parliament, the Mejlis.
The overhaul could make Turkmenistan's political landscape less inscrutable for the country's 5 million residents and foreigners alike, but most observers are likely to withhold judgment until the particulars are in place.
Since stepping in to assume the presidency following the sudden death of strongman Saparmurat Niyazov in late 2006, Berdymukhammedov has sought to present himself as a reformer who can alleviate an impoverished public's worst suffering while opening the hydrocarbon-rich country up to increased trade.
On May 22, the recently created State Commission for Constitutional Reforms held a session chaired by President Berdymukhammedov that was billed as an opportunity to hear about constitutional concerns raised by the public since citizens were invited to comment in April.
Akja Nurberdieva, the speaker of the Mejlis, articulated the desires of "the people" to the commission. "First of all, it should be noted that numerous proposals have been received from citizens on changing the status of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan," Nurberdiyeva said, "assigning its powers related to state affairs to the president of Turkmenistan and the parliament of Turkmenistan."
Unwieldy Legacy
The Halk Maslahaty is currently the leading legislative body in Turkmenistan, with considerably more power than the Mejlis. It comprises some 2,500 representatives, although some sessions have drawn up to 3,000 people. All of its members except the parliamentary deputies are appointed rather than elected. Members come from disparate groups across Turkmenistan -- business and government officials, workers and farmers, heads of social organizations, ethnic groups, and village elders.
On its surface, the effort to devolve powers of the unwieldy Halk Maslahaty to the more manageable Mejlis looks like an effort to simplify proceedings.
"Infrequent sessions of the Halk Maslahaty, held once a year, and the large number of its members create difficulties in convening [Halk Maslahaty] sessions and in solving issues quickly and adopting constitutional laws," Nuberdieva said.
A desire for opacity was among the reasons that the late President Niyazov transfered the powers of the Mejlis to the Halk Maslahaty in August 2003. An alleged assassination attempt on Niyazov in November 2002 was followed by a sweeping crackdown in which very few people were above suspicion.
Niyazov and his administration regarded the Mejlis with suspicion because the constitution gave it the power to confirm a new president if a sitting president died or was otherwise unable to perform his duties.
All 65 members of the Mejlis were, and still are, members of the Halk Maslahaty as well.
Political Cover
With virtually all political power in Turkmenistan held by the president, the role of the legislature is largely confined to formal approval of the president's proposed laws.
The Halk Maslahaty demonstrated its loyalty to the president when it decided to make Niyazov the head of state for life (and presented him with a white robe and a palm staff, the symbols of the Prophet Muhammad) in December 1999.
The Halk Maslahaty consistently opposed Niyazov's dubious "suggestions" over the years to hold new presidential elections, however. At a memorable session in August 2002, the Halk Maslahaty approved renaming the days of the week and the months of the year based on Niyazov's relatives, books he wrote, and even the name "Turkmenbashi," or "head of the Turkmen," Niyazov's preferred title. (The Turkmen government recently decreed that the traditional, pre-Niyazov names of the days and months would be used again from July 1.)
Parliament speaker Nurberdieva suggested that the Halk Maslahaty would be abolished and reorganized into an "Elders Council of Turkmenistan."
President Berdymukhammedov then introduced Baba Zahyrov, the head of the State and Law Institute, who proposed devolving many of the Halk Maslahaty's powers to the president.
There was also a proposal -- by Shirin Akhmedova, the head of the Turkmen National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights under the presidency -- that the new parliament have nearly double the current number of 65 seats.
"In connection with proposals on changing the Halk Maslahaty and the institution of people's representatives and with the aim of increasing the people's representation in the high legislative body of the country," Akhmedova said, "proposals have been made to increase the number of deputies in the Mejlis to 125."
After taking over in a rapid transition following Niyazov's death of heart failure, Berdymukhammedov was elected to a five-year term in February 2007. The election marked the first presidential election in Turkmenistan since 1992, when Niyazov ran unopposed and the official tally showed him receiving 99.5 percent of the vote in a poll in which 99.8 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Turkmenistan is one of the last Central Asian states with a five-year presidential term.
But Nurberdiyeva proposed that Turkmenistan follow Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan's example and expand that period to seven years. Nurberdieva described it as an effort "proceeding from the goals of creating guaranteed opportunities in terms of time for the president of Turkmenistan to implement fundamental long-term programs."
"These proposals are inseparably linked with the wide public support to fundamental, long-term programs of the leader of the nation aimed at serving the interests of the people," Nurberdieva said.
Tough Act To Follow
Niyazov was a Soviet-era holdover who governed with a tight fist and clamped down mercilessly on public dissent.
It is tempting to view an extension of the presidential term as a step backward. But in fact, Turkmenistan has had just two presidential elections since independence in 1991. Berdymukhammedov's election 16 months ago to a five-year term represented the country's first presidential balloting since 1992.
Western officials, analysts, and activists have argued in the past that virtually any talk of elections in Turkmenistan should be taken as a positive sign.
The Turkmen National Institute of Democracy and Human Rights' Akhmedova said many sources are being considered in the constitutional committee's drafting of the new document.
"The norms of UN conventions, to which Turkmenistan is a signatory, OSCE documents, existing law-making and law-enforcement practices and the constitution-building experience of the CIS countries and other states have been studied and taken into consideration while preparing proposals on making amendments and changes to Turkmenistan's Constitution," Akhmedova said.
Such comments might bring hope to groups like the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
It might also bring smiles in the European Union, since Europe is eager to receive Turkmen natural gas but reluctant to embrace a Turkmen government that has long had a reputation as a severe human rights violator.
Guvanch Geraev of RFE/RL's Turkmen Service contributed to this report
Religious literature is strictly banned in Uzbekistan