Sultan is our way – MK

Today, many Russian women from the non-Muslim territories of our multi-religious country, meeting charming Caucasian men in their hometowns, complain that they are “ready to get married, but warn that they already have a wife in their small homeland.” While the Islamic subjects of the Russian Federation (Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Tatarstan, as well as small areas) are officially subject to the Family Code of the Russian Federation common to the entire country.

Is there really polygamy in Russian regions professing Islam, or is it a myth to seduce inexperienced Russian women?

“Tatarstan is a completely different story,” religious scholar Alsu Khasanova immediately warns. – We inherited Islam from the first Islamic state on the territory of present-day Russia – Volga Bulgaria, that is, the Tatars and Bashkirs became part of Russia as Muslims. Almost half of the population professes Islam, but at the same time, in our country it is, as it were, “built-in” into Russian realities; we actually live in the middle of Russia, in a Christian environment, which affects our traditions. In general, for every people on the territory of Russia that today professes Islam, the ancient customs of their grandfathers, clans and families are even more important than the commandments of the confession itself. In addition, the suras of the Koran can be interpreted depending on the situation. For example, a married Tatar went to work far from home for a long time, he was lonely there, and he got himself a “field wife.” In order not to take sin on his soul and not upset it, he can go to the local mosque and enter into a “nikah” with her – a Muslim marriage. It is concluded by the imam in 15 minutes, and there is no registry office or stamp in the passport. Just so as not to be a sinner in the eyes of the Almighty and other Muslims. This is possible here, but there are definitely no harems, as you imagine them, in Tatarstan.

– How do you imagine a harem?

– When all 4 wives allowed by Shariah are simultaneously married to one man, he, as expected, bought each a separate house, no worse than the other, and supports them and their children equally. It’s just too difficult financially, and for practical reasons no one needs it. A polygamist must not only be sexually active, but also very rich. Well, or very ambitious, but all this is not about Tatarstan. Our men are mostly civilized, they adhere to European views on the family, although they believe in Allah.

– What does ambition have to do with it?

– Permitted polygamy is, in fact, the opportunity to legalize up to three mistresses inclusive. Now think about it, what kind of man wants not only his wife, but also 3 mistresses with their children to have legal rights to him? Even if the physiological needs for intimacy are increased, they can be satisfied in a less expensive way. But there is an answer: this is necessary for those “males” who want to show their brothers that they are both rich and strong in intimacy, which is synonymous with strength in general. This means that they are able to give birth to large offspring, feed them and create their own blood clan. Here we smoothly move on to the Caucasus, but then you have to ask them themselves. I will only say that Islam spread in the now Russian Caucasus much later than in other places.

I ask the same question: “Do you have many polygamists?” 56-year-old history teacher Malika from Nazran (Ingushetia), whose 33-year-old son has two wives, and 23-year-old Chechen woman Iman, still unmarried and living in Moscow, promising both complete confidentiality (the names of the interlocutors have been changed – author)

“Polygamy is in the genetic memory of Ingush men,” agrees Malika. – There are records indicating that marriages of one man with several women have been concluded since the end of the 19th century. This continued after 1917, when we became part of the Mountain Soviet Republic. And references to polygamy disappeared only after the Second World War, then our customs, including bride kidnapping, began to be considered not just relics, but a crime. The violator faced a year in prison or correctional labor; the article was abolished only in 1997.

– You seem to say this with regret!

– This is difficult for non-Muslims to understand, but polygamy was originally conceived in the interests of the woman and the country. If a wife, for example, cannot give birth to a son, an heir, then everyone around her out loud pities her husband, and whispers behind her back. It happens that the first wife gets sick or is very tired – this often happens in villages, if the mother-in-law is demanding – and she also asks her husband to bring her an assistant. It happens that a man wants to divorce his bad wife, but she begs him not to disgrace her with a divorce. Then the man simply moves to another house and takes a second wife. He is obliged to support not only her children, but also her herself until the end of her days.

– But men can recruit wives, but not fulfill their obligations towards them!

– They can, of course. And some do just that. But our republic is small, everything is visible, and our actions are seen not only by the Almighty, but also by our neighbors. You can, of course, save money on helping your own women and children, but they will only laugh at such a man. Moreover, you will be known as a beggar, because a man with money cannot help but want to help his own family.

– Well, okay, with women it’s more or less clear, but what’s the benefit for the country?

– From ancient times in the Caucasus, polygamy was used to solve the demographic problem. The mountaineers are very warlike peoples; they always fought with bayonets fearlessly and often died. In 1999, Ruslan Aushev, having become the Ingush president, signed a law allowing Ingush men to have 4 wives inclusive. The official reason for its adoption was the demographic crisis in Ingushetia. But a year later, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation repealed this law. And I will also say that in neighboring Chechnya there are many more polygamists than here. They retain their teips (the clan of the Chechens and Ingush – author)

Will the bride from the neighboring mountain republic confirm this? We ask 23-year-old Iman from Grozny, but in fact living in the capital of the Russian Federation.

– With us, a man cannot get married secretly: on the wedding day, the groom’s house and yard must be decorated so that the whole city knows that there is a wedding there. And, of course, all the bride’s relatives know. And before that, the father will woo the girl and there will be another six months or a year of pre-wedding rituals, this is even before the imam concludes the nikkah. And only then to the registry office, and some don’t go there at all.

– Well, what if, for example, he entered into a nikah with someone else in a Moscow mosque?

– Ahh, well, please! It doesn’t count anyway. Since the wedding in their hometown was not celebrated according to the customs of their fathers, then this is not marriage, but a way to lure a girl into bed. But our guys rarely do that. Guys, of course, want several at once while they are young. Adat people remember polygamy (Chechen adat is a pre-Islamic custom), but only young people have money for several wives! And fathers will not give it to everyone. So if only in 20 years, when he himself gets rich and raises children from his first wife. But then either the man himself has no time for a second wife.