Nepal Women’s Association demands halt to proposed polygamy law
Usha Rawat Mishra, Chairperson of the Nepal Women’s Association, emphasized that protecting the rights of single women and their children is the state’s responsibility.
KATHMANDU: The Nepal Women’s Association has demanded an immediate halt to the proposed amendment to the Muluki Civil Code, 2074, which seeks to legalize polygamy under certain conditions, calling the move irresponsible, regressive, and harmful to women’s rights.
On Sunday, the association submitted a memorandum to Minister Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya at the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs in Singha Durbar, urging the government not to proceed with the bill.
The proposed amendment allows a man to legally marry another woman if a child is born from a physical relationship outside his existing marriage, effectively legalizing polygamy, which the association says amounts to legitimizing a criminal offense.
Usha Rawat Mishra, Chairperson of the Nepal Women’s Association, emphasized that protecting the rights of single women and their children is the state’s responsibility.
She warned that the proposed changes would undermine decades of hard-won achievements in women’s rights and reinstate a centuries-old practice of oppression.
The current Muluki Civil Code clearly prohibits any married man from marrying another woman while the first marriage is still valid, with such subsequent marriages being automatically void.
The association demands the immediate withdrawal of the polygamy legalization proposal.
