The 2025 Kyrgyzstan Polygamy Decriminalisation Debate: Family Law, Gender Equality, and Social Justice in Central Asia

The 2025 Kyrgyzstan Polygamy Decriminalisation Debate: Family Law, Gender Equality, and Social Justice in Central Asia

I. Introduction

In mid-2025, Kyrgyzstan became the centre of an intense socio-legal debate across Central Asia following a legislative attempt to decriminalise bigamy and polygamy. On 25 June 2025, members of the Jogorku Kenesh (the Kyrgyz Parliament), initiated by deputies Nurlan Azygaliev and Mederbek Sakkaraev, quietly approved a package of amendments to the Criminal Code that would have abolished criminal liability under Article 176, which criminalises bigamy and polygamy, before the chamber rose for its summer recess.[1] The move remained undisclosed for over two months and might have stayed secret for far longer had it not come to light on 11 August 2025, when President Sadyr Japarov formally vetoed the bill and returned it to Parliament, expressing strong objections.[1]

This clash highlights a deep-seated tension between a cultural reality in which informal polygamous unions are increasingly sanctified through religious marriage (Nikah) and the state’s secular legal framework, which is built around international human rights standards. President Japarov argued that maintaining criminal liability for bigamy and polygamy remains important for the Kyrgyz Republic because it is consistent with the country’s commitment to gender equality and to the protection of women and children under international human rights standards. This episode therefore demonstrates how domestic family law serves as an often-overlooked but nonetheless vital instrument for both social regulation and gender equality in the Kyrgyz Republic.

II. Domestic Family Law Framework

The debate over repealing Article 176 carries profound implications for Kyrgyzstan’s domestic family law and its standing under international human rights law. Under the Family Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, the state recognises only marriages registered with the offices for registration of acts of civil status (ZAGS); only one marriage may be officially registered at a time.[2] Supporters of criminalisation argue that this framework often leaves second or subsequent wives in weaker legal, social, and economic positions. Such wives typically hold only a religious marriage (Nikah), a practice still followed by several thousand families across Central Asia, which carries no legal status under civil law. This leaves both the women and their children without long-term legal protection, including statutory rights to alimony, inheritance, property, and child support.

It is not only second or subsequent wives who suffer: the burdens borne by legally recognised “first” wives are often absent from media coverage and public discourse. Mukhayo Abduraupova, a well-known women’s rights advocate based in the southern city of Osh, has been among the few willing to openly describe how first wives are frequently marginalised and humiliated within the family, and are often left in conditions of poverty.[3] In many Central Asian communities, maintaining social status and family prestige remains highly valued, which continues to shape attitudes toward marriage and family arrangements. As a result, official wives often endure these circumstances rather than risk the marginalisation that can follow divorce. Decriminalising the practice altogether would therefore risk pushing a high proportion of women and children into a legal, social, and economic “grey zone,” exacerbating vulnerabilities that already exist today.

III. International Human Rights Obligations

The President’s objection was expressly grounded in Kyrgyzstan’s treaty commitments. From an international law perspective, abolishing criminal liability would conflict with Kyrgyzstan’s commitments to gender equality and child protection. The Kyrgyz Republic’s principal domestic and international authorities on this question are the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), alongside institutions such as the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the Constitutional Court. The legal case against decriminalisation is anchored in both domestic constitutional law and international human rights treaties, each of which supports the position that polygamy violates the principle of equality between women and men and infringes women’s right to equality in marriage and family relations. The sections below examine each authority in turn.

IV. Supporting Authority

Domestic Constitutional Guarantees, International Human Rights Treaties, and Scholarly and Civil Society Perspectives

The Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic: Article 16 of the Constitution provides, in relevant part: (1) the Kyrgyz Republic shall respect and ensure protection of everyone’s rights and freedoms, and no one shall be subject to discrimination on grounds including sex, race, language, disability, ethnicity, religion, age, political or other opinion, education, origin, or property status; (2) everyone is equal before the law and the courts; and (3) men and women have equal rights, freedoms, and equal opportunities for their realisation.[4] State authorities have argued that polygamy is inherently at odds with this guarantee of equal rights and opportunities between men and women.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): Repealing Article 176 would most directly implicate CEDAW. As a state party, Kyrgyzstan is bound by Article 16, which requires states to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations, and in particular to ensure equality between men and women.[5] The CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 21 further states that polygamous marriage carries a heightened risk of emotional distress and financial disadvantage for women and their dependants, and should accordingly be discouraged and prohibited.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Objections to the bill also came from the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Institution, both of which supported the President’s decision to veto and return the bill, citing the CRC.[6] Children born into unregistered and legally unrecognised polygamous unions are frequently deprived of essential protections, including paternal maintenance and inheritance, because such marriages provide no legal basis for enforcing parental responsibilities or securing a child’s rights. This, in turn, is said to violate the state’s obligation to protect the best interests of the child.

Scholarly and Civil Society Perspectives: Scholars and sociologists in Central Asia attribute the resurgence of polygamous relationships partly to the revival of religious practice following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and partly to demographic and economic changes driven by labour migration. While some defend the practice as an exercise of religious freedom and cultural tradition, women’s rights advocates argue that the absence of legal recognition for multiple wives creates structural gender inequality within marriage and family life. Because only one marriage can be officially registered, “second” and “subsequent” wives and their children are frequently left without any legal recourse once the relationship dissolves.

V. Conclusion

In sum, the mid-2025 undisclosed legislative attempt to decriminalise bigamy and polygamy in the Jogorku Kenesh reveals the complex relationship between family law, cultural tradition, and gender equality in Kyrgyzstan. Some view the practice as an exercise of religious freedom and as a social reality that, although legally unrecognised, is increasingly sanctified through religious marriage. At the same time, supporters of retaining criminal penalties argue that decriminalisation would deepen the inequality already faced by women, both official and subsequent wives, in polygamous relationships. Maintaining criminal liability for bigamy and polygamy is, on this view, necessary to protect women and children from the emotional distress and legal and economic vulnerability to which they are exposed in such arrangements. The state’s continued commitment to criminalising polygamy and bigamy under Article 176 reflects the Kyrgyz Republic’s stated commitment to international human rights standards and to the principle of equality between women and men.

References

[1] T. Aigyrov, ‘President Returns Law on Abolition of Punishment for Polygamy to Parliament’ 24.kg (11 August 2025) <https://24.kg/english/339215_President_returns_law_on_abolition_of_punishment_for_polygamy_to_Parliament/> accessed 11 June 2026; Президент Кыргызской Республики, ‘Президент Садыр Жапаров вернул в Жогорку Кенеш закон об отмене уголовной ответственности за многоженство’ president.kg (11 August 2025) <https://president.kg/ru/news/all/39453> accessed 11 June 2026; KABAR, ‘Садыр Жапаров вернул в ЖК закон об отмене уголовной ответственности за многоженство’ ru.kabar.kg (11 August 2025) <https://ru.kabar.kg/news/sadyr-zhaparov-vernul-v-zhk-zakon-ob-otmene-ugolovnoj-otvetstvennosti-za-mnogozhenstvo/> accessed 9 June 2026.
[2] GWANET, ‘Draft Family Code of the Kyrgyz Republic’ (gender.cawater-info.net) <http://gender.cawater-info.net/publications/pdf/family_code_kg.pdf> accessed 11 June 2026.
[3] Vladimir Rozanskij, ‘Polygamy in Kyrgyzstan’ AsiaNews (17 October 2025) <https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Polygamy-in-Kyrgyzstan-64087.html> accessed 9 June 2026.
[4] Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, art 16 (5 May 2021 rev) <https://constsot.kg/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/constitution-of-the-kyrgyz-republic.pdf> accessed 12 June 2026.
[5] Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981) 1249 UNTS 13, art 16 <https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-elimination-all-forms-discrimination-against-women> accessed 14 June 2026.
[6] Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted 20 November 1989, entered into force 2 September 1990) 1577 UNTS 3 <https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child> accessed 14 June 2026; UNICEF, ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (unicef.org) <https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention> accessed 14 June 2026.