Polygamy in France
Encyclopedia
Polygamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...

is illegal in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

and has been the center of recent political debates due to surges of Malian immigrants
Polygamy in Mali
Polygamy is legal in Mali and frequently practiced. Malian immigrants to western nations such as France have encountered handfuls of problems based on such unions, and sparked political debate in France to bring about tougher laws against polygamy....

 living polygamously in the country. Due to such, stricter laws have been enforced to stomp out polygamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...

.

the Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

 estimates that in France 200,000 people live in 16,000 to 20,000 polygamous families, almost all of them Muslims of North or central African heritage. French polygamists rely on government single parent payments and state housing benefits to support the multiple wives to whom they are married under Muslim, but not under French law.

Mayotte

As of 2009, polygamy
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...

 is legal in the French island territory of Mayotte
Mayotte
Mayotte is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre , a smaller island, Petite-Terre , and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, namely between northwestern Madagascar and...

. However, this will soon change. On March 29, 2009, 95% of Mayotte citizens voted to become the 101st department of France. Due to such, the island is being forced to bar all forms of polygamous unions and other forms of practices that "contradict with French culture", including child marriages. The island is required to disallow recognizing polygamy by 2011, when the vote becomes effective. At the present time, polygamous marriages are presumed to have been stopped being issued by the government.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK