Not all residents of Northern Caucasus unconditionally support polygamy

Only 3% of Russian residents consider it necessary to allow polygamy to the country's Muslim nations, showed the opinion poll conducted by the All-Russian Centre for Studying Public Opinion (known as VTsIOM). This 3% of the Russia's population makes 4,388,000 people, which is less than a half of the population of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), the home to a significant portion of all Russian Muslims.

The attitude of Russians to polygamy for the Muslims living in Russia has changed dramatically during the last 16 years, as indicated the results of the poll conducted by the VTsIOM among 1600 people in 130 settlements of Russia on May 23-24. According to their data, while in 1999, 58% of Russians believed polygamy as quite possible, and 12% – even necessary, today 58% state an inadmissibility of this form of marriage; 30% of respondents find is admissible; and only 3% - as necessary.

Within these 16 years the attitude of Russian nationals to polygamy has not changed: it is rejected by 87% of those recently interviewed (in 1999, 83% of Russian nationals spoke against it). Only 8% of Russian nationals admit polygamy; and 2% of them find it as necessary.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the issue of polygamy in the Russian society was raised after the scandalous wedding of Nazhud Guchigov, the head of the Nozhai-Yurt ROVD (District Interior Division) of Chechnya, to the 17-year-old Kheda (Louise) Goylabieva. It was noted that, according to some sources, the ROVD boss wanted to make the girl his second wife.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.