Category Archives: Polygamy

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First wife has second thoughts on polygamy - EH Extra

My granddaughter, (daughter's daughter), is studying the subject of mathematical probability. And her younger brother is getting acquainted with the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. It was during a recent chat with them that I started thinking about the importance of probability and uncertainty in life.

As I have mentioned before, my elder brother had an irrepressible sense of humour. We were chatting about this and that one afternoon, when he pointed to a bird perched on the sill of a nearby window, and said, "if I threw a pebble at it and it flew away, how would you tell whether it was a he bird or a she bird? I was completely at a loss to find an appropriate answer to that trick question. My brother smiled and said, "Simple. If he flew away, it was a he bird and, if she flew away, it was a she bird!"

In the classes I take for civil service aspirants I also cover the subject of ethics, especially as relevant to the field of governance. Among the many things I teach, while handling that rather complicated subject, is the principle that, good and evil, sinful and virtuous, moral or immoral, as also right or wrong, are not easy to define. They are, all of them, functions of time and space, as well as the culture of the society in the context of which one is defining them.

Many phenomena, such as abortion, polygamy, eating meat, consanguineous marriages, homosexuality or child marriage are held as crimes in some religion or culture, while others have approved them. In the same region, and at different times, views taken have changed, as they have, for instance, in India. The law creating rights for transgender persons or, in another instance, the High Court of Kerala upholding the rights of the children of living persons are recent examples.

The trick, therefore, I tell my students, is to find the golden mean at a given place, at a given time and a given context. And, very often, that will turn out to be neither totally white nor black, but somewhere in the area of greyness. There is, in other words, a certain amount of uncertainty in deciding, precisely what is the right or wrong thing to do, in a given situation. But, then, everything about this universe, and human life, is totally uncertain.

It may sound a little preposterous if I were to ask "where is the guarantee that the sun will rise tomorrow"? But a little thinking will make it clear that it is a perfectly sensible question. Do not floods and earthquakes occur suddenly? And do not millions of people who slept happily the previous night, believing that all will be well, fail to see the next morning? Similarly do not stars (the Sun is one), explode and self-destruct, every other second, in this universe? And, but for the predictions and estimates offered by science, what certainty defines the future of this planet in which we live, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy or the universe itself?

How close did mankind not come to complete annihilation, twice in the past, on account of the world wars? Or in recent times, the pandemic? For that matter, even as this column is being written, the war in Ukraine can escalate, causing, a direct confrontation between the superpowers. A sudden impulse many seize a maverick leader such as the President of North Korea, resulting in disastrous consequences for the whole of humanity.

This is the reason why Kabir said, in one of in his celebrated 'dohas', that what needs to be done tomorrow should be done today, and that which needs to be done today done at once. And Kishore Kumar sings for Rajesh Khanna in the movie 'Andaz' saying that nothing is known about what will happen tomorrow and therefore today should be spent in singing and laughing. In a similar vein Dale Carnegie advises you to live in 'day tight' compartments, forgetting what happened yesterday, and not bothering about what is in store for tomorrow.

The phenomena of uncertainty now is an accepted scientific proposition and is the foundation of most inventions that have made modern life at once comfortable and dangerous. The famous cat of Schrdinger's which is both alive as well dead, (the principle of uncertainty). And tight which can be a wave and a particle (the concept of duality) at the same time, are mysteries accepted by science as fact, thanks to the advantages made in quantum mechanic.

Coming back to day to day life we find that announcements regarding the arrival of aircraft or trains usually use the expression ETA or the expected time of arrival (or departure as the case maybe). I have often wondered why they cannot be a little more precise. Clearly circumstances can change suddenly on account of unpredictable factors. The engineer driving the train can fall sick, or a cloudburst may cause an incoming flight to be diverted to another airport.

The railways, or the airlines, do not take chances, especially in these days when public interest litigation is common and they can be sued by the passengers, or those waiting to receive them, for compensation for the damage caused to them on account of inaccurate announcements.

A somewhat similar experience comes with weather forecasts. The weather forecaster, to plagiarise Shakespeare, is making unsure weather doubly sure! Reminds me of the weatherman has sought a transfer to another place because the local weather would not agree with him! Probably why the word 'anuman' used in Hindi for expectation (In the context of forecasting), means suspicion in Telugu!

The land fall location, and the extent of the coast-line which a depression crosses depends on its direction and speed. The area that is likely to be inundated by a flood which is approaching a city after heavy rains in the catchment area, depends on many factors including the terrain over which the waters travelling, the vulnerability to submersion of different areas in the city etc. both are matters of probability and estimation. Effective preparedness depends on anticipation and expectation, not precise knowledge

(The writer is former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh) (The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of The Hans India)

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The uncertainty of human lives - The Hans India

New Delhi:Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has issued an order banning polygamy among members of the group terming it unnecessary and costly, Kabul-basedBakhtar News Agency reported on Saturday.

The country, which is an Islamic emirate governed under Sharia laws, allows for men to have up to four wives. Polygamy is widely practiced in Afghanistan. The absence of offspring from the first marriage isbelievedto be the primary reason Afghan men take multiple wives.

However, Akhundzada has emphasisedhow Taliban members should avoid second, third and fourth marriages as its an expensive affair.The order further instructed the Amr-ul-Maruf Ministry (Ministry of Enforcement of Virtue and Suppression of Vice) to identify violators and report to the leadership.

In January 2021, a similar decree was issued by the Taliban when it was still in midst of peace negotiations with the Afghan government regarding the countrys future. The leadership wasconcernedabout rampant corruption among members who were looking to raise money to either pay the bride price (dowry paid by the groom to the brides family) or sustain their many households.

The Taliban leadership also believed that spending a huge amount of money on wedding ceremonies could lead to criticism from their enemies/opponents or from within the group.

Polygamy is common among the Taliban and most senior members have more than one wife. Even the groups founder Mullah Mohammad Omar reportedlyhad at least three wives. One of those was Osama Bin Ladens daughter that had secured an alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaeda before the events of 9/11.

(Edited by: Manoj Ramachandran)

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Taliban chief bans polygamy, calls it unnecessary and an expensive affair - ThePrint

One of the most influential social and religious reformers of the 19th century, Ram Mohan Roy, born on May 22, 1772 in what was then Bengal Presidencys Radhanagar in Hooghly district, would have turned 250 years today. As India grapples increasingly with changing social and religious circumstances, Roys work in the sphere of womens emancipation, modernising education and seeking changes to religious orthodoxy finds new relevance in this time.

In Makers of Modern India (Penguin Books, 2010), a book that profiles the work and words of the men and women who argued the Republic of India into existence, its editor, historian Ramachandra Guha, writes, Roy was unquestionably the first person on the subcontinent to seriously engage with the challenges posed by modernity to traditional social structures and ways of being. He was also one of the first Indians whose thought and practice were not circumscribed by the constraints of kin, caste and religion.

Early Life

Born into a prosperous upper-caste Brahmin family, Roy grew up within the framework of orthodox caste practices of his time: child-marriage, polygamy and dowry were prevalent among the higher castes and he had himself been married more than once in his childhood. The familys affluence had also made the best in education accessible to him.

A polyglot, Roy knew Bengali and Persian, but also Arabic, Sanskrit, and later, English. His exposure to the literature and culture of each of these languages bred in him a scepticism towards religious dogmas and social strictures. In particular, he chafed at practices such as Sati, that compelled widows to be immolated on their husbands funeral pyre. Roys sister-in-law had been one such victim after his elder brothers death, and it was a wound that stayed with him.

The waning of the Mughals and the ascendancy of the East India Company in Bengal towards the end of the 18th century was also the time when Roy was slowly coming into his own. His education had whetted his appetite for philosophy and theology, and he spent considerable time studying the Vedas and the Upanishads, but also religious texts of Islam and Christianity. He was particularly intrigued by the Unitarian faction of Christianity and was drawn by the precepts of monotheism that, he believed, lay at the core of all religious texts.

He wrote extensive tracts on various matters of theology, polity and human rights, and translated and made accessible Sanskrit texts into Bengali. Rammohun did not quite make a distinction between the religious and the secular. He believed religion to be the site of all fundamental changes. What he fought was not religion but what he believed to be its perversion (Rabindranath) Tagore called him a Bharatpathik by which he meant to say that Rammohun combined in his person the underlying spirit of Indic civilisation, its spirit of pluralism, tolerance and a cosmic respect for all forms of life, says historian Amiya P Sen, Sivadasani Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford, UK, whose Rammohun Roy: A Critical Biography (Penguin, Viking, 2012), remains a definitive work on the man who was a key figure in Indias journey into modernism.

Roy, the first among liberals

Even though British consolidation of power was still at a nascent stage in India at the time, Roy could sense that change was afoot. Confident about the strength of his heritage and open to imbibing from other cultures what he believed were ameliorative practices, Roy was among Indias first liberals. In the introduction to his biography of Roy, Sen writes, his mind also reveals a wide range of interests, rarely paralleled in the history of Indian thought. He was simultaneously interested in religion, politics, law and jurisprudence, commerce and agrarian enterprise, Constitutions and civic rights, the unjust treatment of women and the appalling condition of the Indian poor And he studied matters not in the abstract or in academic solitude but with the practical objective of securing human happiness and freedom. That made him a modern man.

In 1814, he started the Atmiya Sabha (Society of Friends), to nurture philosophical discussions on the idea of monotheism in Vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, casteism, child marriage and other social ills. The Atmiya Sabha would make way for the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, set up with Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagores father.

Abolition of Sati, educational and religious reforms

During the course of his time in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), a period of about 15 years, Roy became a prominent public intellectual. He campaigned for the modernisation of education, in particular the introduction of a Western curriculum, and started several educational institutions in the city.

In 1817, he collaborated with Scottish philanthropist David Hare to set up the Hindu College (now, Presidency University). He followed it up with the Anglo-Hindu School in 1822 and, in 1830, assisted Alexander Duff to set up the General Assemblys Institution, which later became the Scottish Church College.

It was his relentless advocacy alongside contemporaries such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar that finally led to the abolition of Sati under the governor generalship of William Bentinck in 1829. Roy argued for the property rights of women, and petitioned the British for freedom of the press (in 1829 and 1830).

His Brahmo Sabha, that later became the Brahmo Samaj, evolved as a reaction against the upper-caste stranglehold on social customs and rituals. During the Bengal Renaissance, it ushered in sweeping social changes and birthed the Brahmo religion, a reformed spiritual Hinduism that believes in monotheism and the uniformity of all men, irrespective of caste, class or creed.

Perils of non-conformism

As many modern liberals discover to their peril, non-conformism brings with it its own share of infamy. Roy, who was given the title of Raja by the Mughal emperor Akbar II, was no exception to this. Among the first Indians to gain recognition in the UK and in America for his radical thoughts, in his lifetime, Roy was also often attacked by his own countrymen who felt threatened by his reformist agenda, and by British reformers and functionaries, whose views differed from his.

Would Roys reformist agenda have met with equal if not more resistance in contemporary India? After all, in 2019, actor Payal Rohatgi had launched an offensive against Roy on Twitter, accusing him of being a British stooge who was used to defame Sati. Sen says Roys legacy has not been celebrated enough for many historic reasons, of which partisan reading by the Hindu right is one, but His life and message stands vastly apart from the spirit of contemporary Hindutva or exclusionary, political Hinduism.

Celebrations

Roys 250th birth anniversary will see year-long celebrations in different parts of the country. In West Bengal, the unveiling of a statue at Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Salt Lake, by GK Reddy, Minister of Culture; Tourism; and Development of North Eastern Region, will mark the inauguration of the Centres celebration plans. The West Bengal state government has overseen repairs of Roys ancestral house in Radhanagar, and is set to confer heritage status to it. The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in Kolkata has organised a three-day inaugural programme from May 22 to May 24 that will see musical tributes and talks by Rajya Sabha MP and retired diplomat Jawhar Sircar; eminent academics and historians such as Suranjan Das, vice-chancellor, Jadavpur University; Rudrangshu Mukherjee, chancellor, Ashoka University; professor Arun Bandyopadhyay of Calcutta University, among others.

A philatelic exhibition on the Bengali Renaissance has been organised by the Rammohun Library and Free Reading Room, set up in 1904. The organisation will also publish a commemorative volume.

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A look at the legacy of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the father of Modern Indian Renaissance - The Indian Express

Four members of a family were charred to death in Bihars Darbhanga district on Saturday (14 May) after the first wife of a man lit herself and others on fire over her husbands second marriage, as per various reports.

Bibi Parveen is Mohammed Khurshid Alams first wife. When Parveen could not get pregnant, Khurshid married Roshni Khatun from a nearby village. Parveen was unhappy with the second marriage.

The second wife recently got pregnant. After a routine but heated spat, Parveen poured kerosene on her husband, Roshni, and his mother.

All four including Parveen herself died of burns.

The incident happened around 5 am at their house in Sheikhpura colony in Supaul Bazaar area, which falls under Biraul police station.

Polygamy A Contentious Issue

Polygamy has been a practice in ancient India among kings and rulers, though not widespread. After independence, the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, declared second marriage, when the current spouse is living, as null and void, and punishable by law.

Section 494 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, says:

Marrying again during lifetime of husband or wife Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in which such marriage is void by reason of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

The section exempts divorced couples and those who have been living separately for seven years.

Though the law applies to all Indian citizens irrespective of religion or caste, personal laws are given credence over IPC in these matters.

As the family affairs of Muslims are governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937, which allows Muslim men to have four wives (Muslim women are not allowed four husbands), Muslims are exempted from this provision in the law.

However, over the years, several cases where Muslim personal laws have conflicted with the IPC have gone to court.

In February 2015, a Kerala court held that Section 494 of the IPC applied to all offenders (of bigamy or polygamy) irrespective of religion but subject to personal laws. The court was hearing a petition asking bigamy to be made punishable for men and women of all religions, including Muslims.

The same year, the Gujarat High Court held that Muslims cannot be booked for bigamy or polygamy under the IPC as it is permissible in Muslim personal laws. The court was hearing a petition by a Muslim man, Abbas Rasool Mohammed Merchant, who had sought the quashing of a first information report (FIR) filed against him by his first wife, Sajedabanu, in 2010 for marrying another woman while she was still alive and not divorced.

The court, however, observed, notwithstanding there is no codification by the legislation of marriages amongst the Muslim, polygamy is not encouraged and is an exception and not a rule.

The same year, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Article 25 (right to propagate and practise any religion) did not protect the right of Muslim men to practice polygamy.

The court was hearing a petition filed by one Khursheed Ahmad Khan seeking the quashing of an order by the Uttar Pradesh government to sack him from his job as irrigation supervisor for violating service rules.

Khursheed had married a second time during the existence of his first marriage without taking permission. The sister of his first wife had approached the National Commission for Human Rights against the second marriage.

A Muslim women's organisation named Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andola, led by a Mumbai-based activist, Zakia Soman, has been campaigning against polygamy among Muslim men, calling the practice "abhorrent morally, socially and legally."

The organisation released results of a survey in 2017 where they interviewed 289 Muslim women to conclude that women in polygamous marriages felt traumatised by their situation.

It is pertinent to mention that despite the Hindu Marriage Act criminalising it, polygamy continues to be practised in the Hindu community, even though by a small section and mostly restricted to certain geographies.

Polygamy, though most prevalent among men, is known to be practised among some women in India as well.

A study by Punjab University between 2013-17 found that polyandry is practised in at least one Haryana and two Punjab districts. These included Daulatpur village in Haryanas Yamunanagar district, where the Gujjar Muslim community practices polyandry, and villages Piplian in Punjabs Mansa district and Panechan in Punjabs Fatehgarh Sahib district, where the Jat Sikh community practices it.

Fresh Petition To Ban Polygamy Among Muslims

Last month, a Muslim woman named Reshma filed a petition in Delhi High Court to declare bigamy or polygamy by a Muslim husband in the absence of consent of his first wife as illegal.

As per information provided by her to the court, she married one Shoeb Khan in 2019 and had a child with him, but he abandoned her and the child, and is now preparing for a second marriage.

In the last hearing in the case held on 2 May, the court asked the centre to file its response on the matter.

Violence Over Polygamy In India

Two years ago, a sensational video came to light where a Muslim woman was seen standing over a dead body, pistol in hand. The woman, who had fired the bullets, was clad in burqa while the one lying on the road in a pool of blood was wearing a red salwar kameez.

The police said the killer was the first wife of a Muslim man named Zafar, who had killed her husbands second wife. In this case, the first wife was Muslim while the second belonged to a Hindu family who had converted to Islam to marry Zafar.

In January, a woman in Jharkhand named Dolly Devi was arrested by the police for killing her husband Ashok Sonis second wife, Kumkum Devi.

In 2021, a woman named Rehana was arrested for killing the second wife, Nazia, of her husband Jahangir. In this case, the police arrested Jahangir as well, as Nazias parents had accused him of harassing their daughter for dowry and being an accomplice in the crime.

Originally posted here:

Days After Plea Seeking Ban On Polygamy By Muslim Men, Muslim Woman Burns Husband And His Second Wife To Death In Bihar - Swarajya

Each and every episode of FXs Under the Banner of Heaven takes us deeper into the horrifying actions of brothers Ron (Sam Worthington) and Dan Lafferty (Wyatt Russell). Weve watched for weeks as the two eldest Lafferty boys found themselves pulled away from the mainstream Mormon Church and enthralled by the dark teachings of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints. In Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 5, we watch as both men finally cross horrific lines.

Ron and Dan abuse their wives, get excommunicated from the church and finally broach the topic of taking multiple wives. Oh, and we get to watch Ron murder his father by denying him much-needed medical care. All in all, Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 5 One Mighty and Strong is a nauseating watch that gets us closer to understanding how the Lafferty brothers could be driven to murder their sister-in-law Brenda (Daisy Edgar Jones) and their infant niece Erica.

FXs Under the Banner of Heaven is, of course, based on the electrifying Jon Krakauer book of the same name. While that non-fiction work weaves together Mormon history, interviews with survivors of polygamy, and true crime reporting, Under the Banner of Heaven is structured more like a traditional crime thriller. Writer and creator Dustin Lance Black created two fictional detectives Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) and Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham) to take us through the investigation into Brenda and Ericas deaths. We learn in tandem with the detectives how the Lafferty brothers fell from grace.

One of the most harrowing scenes in this weeks episode comes when Dans brow-beaten wife Matilda (Chloe Pirrie) learns that her husband intends to take her teen daughters from a past relationship as his plural wives. Its a revelation that gives Matilda the courage to make her one act of resistance weve seen so far; she aids her daughters escape from Dans house.

Yeah, its a really full on scene, Pirrie told Decider. Honestly, I dont know [where Matilda found that courage] because its such a moment where shes just faced with the enormity of that. I looked at the girl playing my daughter, a wonderful actress, and I understood what was happening. I saw it in my mind what was happening so clearly. And its really devastating.

I did a lot of research around the polygamous sex and some real life people who have been through that world, which was very helpful and moving and shocking. And when you check in with all of that it was quite obvious where that scene had to sit and what it had to do.

Wyatt Russell told Decider that he struggled with the fact that the real Dan Lafferty is a charismatic figure and he worried how playing him honestly would lend credence to his warped view of himself. You feel like youre giving something to someone who doesnt deserve it. People like this they love the attention, Russell said.

Nevertheless, Russell believes that its important to play these characters who did these terrible things.

When people start looking at things from What would I do? and they dont actually look at the world around them and assess the situation for what it isthen bad things happen. Being able to portray characters who lead with love and manipulation can be very dangerous. Playing that person right is important to getting that story across in the correct way for it to be effective I believe. I thought that was a challenge I was ready to take on, he said.

Of course, Dan Lafferty isnt the only character who veers into true terrifying evil this week. After being excommunicated from the Mormon church, Ron Lafferty essentially has a breakdown wherein he seems to delight in chasing his scared children through the house. Under the Banner of Heaven star Sam Worthington told Decider that he didnt approach it as a breakdown per se, but all fun and games.

You cant actually approach it from a negative point of view. He wants to keep playing with his kids. He wants his family together. Its how much that sense of commitment is, Worthington said. Even in [Episodes] 5 and 6 and 7, you cant necessarily play a descent into delusion. You can play a commitment to and a passion.

However thats not the worst thing that Ron does. By episodes end, we learn that Ron essentially kills his own father. Worthington once again wanted to play the juxtaposition in the scene. Instead of going loud and monstrous, he went as sensitive and quiet as he could.

I think his fathers whipped him his whole life. Thats him whipping his father, Worthington said. His father beat his own dog to death and hes now treating his father like the dog. Thats probably the harshest that youre ever going to see him.

Adding to the complexity of the scene? Worthington said he approached Rons relationships with his parents as Oedipal. Its not just that hes closer to his mother than his father, but there is something deeper going on with the matriarch of the Lafferty clan.

I wanted something Oedipal. Thats what I wanted. I wanted that it was almost sexual between him and his mum. Its not written like that. Its just something that I wanted to explore that his mum is this, its deeper than just a motherly bond, Worthington said.

If the other actor is open to it, you start discovering things about characters and scenes that [Dustin] Lance [Black] would then, you know, brightly pick up on and go, Wow, keep going down that route in Episode 5, or keep going down that route in Episode 6. And thats very cool that a filmmaker like Lance isnt just saying, this is what I see in my head and I want you to just portray that, but hes taking what youre delivering and what youre discovering, and that feeds back into a story to tell a great series.

Under the Banner of Heaven continues next week with the penultimate episode of the series.

The rest is here:

Polygamy, Abuse, and Murder: 'Under the Banner of Heaven' Episode 5 Goes to the Darkest Places Yet - Decider

Under the Banner of Heaven explores the lives of killers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who murdered their sister-in-law Brenda Wright Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter Erica in 1984.

The Lafferty brothers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and, though they were later excommunicated for their fanatical belief in Mormon fundamentalism, the way in which their faith shaped them is examined in greater detail in the FX true crime show.

The way in which Ron (Sam Worthington) and Dan's (Wyatt Russell) relationship with their wives Dianna (Denise Gough) and Matilda (Chloe Pirrie) was impacted by fundamentalism is also of particular importance to the story.

Viewers are no doubt wondering what happened to the two of them, so here Newsweek will look into everything you need to know.

Ron first met his wife Dianna in Florida while on his two-year mission for the LDS church, which he was tasked with undertaking in the state and Georgia.

Dianna was a nursing student when she first met Ron, and they got married shortly after the conclusion of his mission, Jon Krakauer reported in his nonfiction book Under the Banner of Heaven which the show is based on.

They moved from Florida to Utah so that they could be near Ron's family, and they had six children together.

Krakauer spoke with a close friend of Dianna named Penelope Weiss, who told him that the couple were "so happy for sixteen and a half years" but things took a turn when they began to struggle financially.

During this difficult period, in which Ron and Dianna failed to make their loan repayments and almost lost their home, Dan persuaded his older brother with his fundamentalist beliefs.

Weiss told Krakauer: "Dan convinced Ron that God didn't want us to have material things, that it was good to lose everything," and even started to persuade him of the benefits of practicing polygamy.

Prior to Dan's indoctrination, Ron was said to treat his wife "like a queen," but after she essentially became "his slave" and was subjugated to horrific abuse at her husband's hands.

When Ron was excommunicated and lost his job, he became "increasingly abusive" with Dianna, and she turned to his brother Allen's wife Brenda for help.

Brenda told Dianna that she needed to divorce Ron, an idea she at first thought was impossible but later realized was her only means of escape. Dianna filed for divorce from Ron and this was finalized in the fall of 1983.

Around Thanksgiving in 1983, Dianna took her and Ron's kids and moved back to Florida, and the pair did not see each other again. Though, she did testify to a Utah County prosecutor for his trial following his and Dan's arrest for Brenda's murder.

Similarly to Ron, Dan met future wife Matilda when he embarked on his two-year mission to Scotland, and the divorced mother of two girls was said to have had a "powerful impression" on him.

Dan did not consider marrying Matilda until they met again at a missionary reunion six years later, where he said he prayed to God to advise him on if he should propose to her and received a positive response.

The couple moved to California with her two children so that Dan could study at the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, they lived there for five years and it was at the end of their time there that Dan was introduced to the notion of polygamy and its supposed place in the Mormon faith.

Dan and Matilda had four children together and after finishing his training, the whole family moved back to Utah County, where he became obsessed with the practices of polygamy and discovered a manuscript called "The Peace Maker" that said plural marriage was biblically rational.

He became so fanatical with the idea of polygamy that he suggested he take on spiritual wives as soon as possible, and he told Dianna of his intention to make her eldest daughter, his step-daughter, the first.

At Ron's trial in 1996, per Krakauer, Matilda testified: "I had come to a place there was no choices. I could either go and leave my kids, or stay and accept it."

In the end, Dan changed his mind about taking Matilda's daughter as his wife and instead married a woman named Ann Randak who he'd met when borrowing a horse from the ranch she worked at.

Two days before Ron and Dan carried out the murder of Brenda and her child, Dan met with his second wife for a day and night, and the next day, July 23, he visited Matilda and their family to celebrate his youngest son's first birthday.

The family gathering was to be the last time that Dan and Matilda saw each other before his arrest.

New episodes of Under the Banner of Heaven are released Thursdays on Hulu.

Read the original here:

'Under the Banner of Heaven': Where Are Ron and Dan Lafferty's Wives Dianna and Matilda? - Newsweek

TLC is back with another season of 'Seeking Sister Wife'. The reality show focuses on several raw, behind-the-scenes looks at polygamous partnerships.

With the shows diverse cast of families and much like the successful hit series, 'Sister Wives', this show throws light on the journeys of three families, all of whom are in various phases of polygamous relationships; Danielle and Garrick Merrifield return for season 4, along with Sidian and Tosha Jones.

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Season 4 of 'Seeking Sister Wife' premieres on Monday, June 6, 2022, at 10 p.m. ET. You can watch the reality series on TLC.

The official synopsis reads, "Seeking Sister Wife documents the lives of three very unique families who are all in various phases of seeking, dating or transitioning a new sister wife into their lives".

Sidian and Tosha Jones

Tosha and Sidian Jones are returning for Season 4 of 'Seeking Sister Wife'. After Sidians divorce from his first wife, he and Tosha (her being his second wife), began their search for a plural wife.

Having said that, the two are pursuing a long-distance relationship with a woman from the Phillippines, called Arielle.

Danielle and Garrick Merrifield

Garrick and his wife, Dannielle Merrifield, made quite an impression on viewers throughout the one season they attempted to expand their relationship into a plural marriage.

The couple even divorced early on so Garrick could wed his Brazilian love and then-girlfriend, Roberta. The goal was to bring Roberta home and make her their sister wife. The new season might throw light on where Roberta is now and if she is committed to their arrangement.

Season 4 will also be seeing a few new faces; Steve and Brenda Foley, with a younger potential sister wife, April, the second being Nick, April, and Jennifer Davis (with April and Jennifer being legally married to each other, but consider themselves to be married to Nick, and share his last name), and lastly, Marcus, Taryn, and India Epps; a plural family on the search for another woman to join their arrangement.

As of now, we don't have an update on this front just as yet.

We're yet to see an update on this front but stay tuned.

Original post:

'Seeking Sister Wife' Season 4: 5 things to know about the TLC reality show - MEAWW

While some applauded Yuls decision to take the bold step of making his sons mother his wife, others condemned him for betraying his first wife.

Perhaps Yul might have betrayed May morally but has he done anything wrong under the law ?

According to a lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Ogun contacted by Legit.ng, the act of getting married to another person while still married is known as Bigamy.

Ogun explained that there is no Nigerian law stopping a man from marrying more than wife, However, if a Nigerian man marries under the Marriage Act (aka court marriage), he runs the risk of committing bigamy and getting jailed.

His words: Generally, getting married to another wife is a right that can be exercised by a man. It is supported by law, logic and public morality. There is no law in this country inhibiting a man from marrying more than one wife.

The only exception to this is where the man contracted the marriage under the Marriage Act, popularly known as court marriage.

A woman who does not want her husband to marry another wife must ensure that a statutory marriage is contracted. This bars the man to marry another wife till death do the parties apart. If a man married under the Act dares to marry an additional woman, he puts himself at the risk of jail terms. This is supported by Section 46 and 47 of the Marriage Act.

Excerpt from:

Can My Husband Go To Jail If He Takes A Second Wife? What The Nigerian Law Says About Polygamy - Nigeria News

The TV adaption of the best-selling Sally Rooney novel, Conversations With Friends, hits Irish screens on Wednesday.

Like Rooneys Normal People, Conversations With Friends is likewise set in Dublin and focuses on the life of a Trinity student with a tangled web of personal relationships.

Protagonist Frances begins a relationship with married man Nick - played by actor Joe Alwyn - and the series explores the complexities of love, friendship and polygamy.

My marriage has survived several affairs already, Nick tells Frances mournfully in one scene.

Ive just never been party to them.

The series is produced by the same team who filmed Normal People and director Lenny Abrahamson said that they originally flirted with the idea of making Conversations With Friends into a film:

It was being developed as a feature [film] but it was sort of hard to crack as a feature and then Normal People came out and we looked at it and it was so kind of directly episodic, he recalled to The Anton Savage Show.

Like when you read the novel, it switches between the two characters and the ebbs and flows of their relationship and it really felt like television.

However, such was the triumph of Normal People - which was streamed over 60 million times on BBC iPlayer alone - that they decided to stick with the TV format:

We came out the other side and decided, Oh thats how it works with Sallys writing. Thats a much better shape.

And so we went back to Conversations With Friends and went back to Sally, went back to the BBC and HULU and everybody and said, Look, we think this should be a TV series.

Shooting was spread over 135 days, cast and crew often worked intense six day weeks and the result is 12 half hour episodes.

New Sally Rooney TV adaption to air Wednesday

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The book was Rooney's debut and an instant bestseller; actress Sarah Jessica Parker posted on Instagram, "This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear Im not alone.

In the US alone 121,000 copies were sold and fans across the world are eagerly awaiting the TV version of one of the most popular Irish novels in modern times.

Main image: Cast members during shooting.

Read more here:

New Sally Rooney TV adaption to air Wednesday - Newstalk