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strong>Oct. 15, p1

East Lombok regency in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) has issued a regulation (Perbup) requiring male civil servants to pay Rp 1 million (US$81) if they wish to marry a second wife, a move critics say is likely to increase divorce rates and trigger an uptick in cases of domestic violence.

Your comments:

This is for additional income and it is silly. Regarding the divorce statistics, I don'€™t think that is necessarily an argument against second wives.

I don'€™t like the idea, mostly because it is against my culture (but that is also not a valid argument) and because it only applies to second wives but not second husbands (that I think is a valid argument).

The fact that 95 percent of divorces are caused by a second marriage is only because there is a possibility to have second wives. Obviously, they marry again and hope that the first wife accepts it.

But that doesn'€™t mean there would not be just as many divorces if second wives were not an option. They would simply get divorced and then marry again.

It'€™s quite possible that there would actually be more divorces without the second wife possibility.

Kantisini