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Indonesian Polygamy App Sparks Controversy

JAKARTA – A new Indonesian application catering to Muslim men seeking multiple wives will be released early next month, offering them a trusted, halal source for polygamy.

Produced by Indonesian company Pandu Solusi, Ayopoligami, or “let’s do polygamy,” is described as a “platform that seeks to bring together male users with women who are willing to make ‘big families’ from one husband,” the Telegraph reported.

The app was first introduced earlier this year. Yet, it wall pulled later from app stores after raising controversies.

It will officially relaunch this October, having been approved by Muslim scholars after the company made some modifications.

Ayopoligami’s owner and founder Lindu Cipta Pranayama, who actually met his current wife through his own app, told The Jakarta Post that the concept emerged based on his personal experiences with online dating platforms.

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“At first, we developed a dating website for singles, but during the development period, the issue of polygamy arose,” he said. “I wanted it to be a trusted online dating website.”

Designed for those looking for a “serious” relationship, the app will require users to provide a valid identification card and disclose their marital status.

Moreover, it requires a letter from a man’s first partner permitting him to remarry.

Polygamy is legal in Indonesia as long as the first wife consents.

The app has raised controversies in a country where 90 percent of its population are Muslims.

“I don’t think the application will be popular,” Bonar Tigor Naispospos of the Setara Institute, a Jakarta think-tank focused on religion and society, told The Telegraph.

Of polygamy, Naispospos added, “many women, even the religious[ly] devout, disagree.”

Marriage is a highly recommended act in Islam in general and is the practice of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). But meanwhile, its status might differ from one person to another.

Scholars stated that marriage takes the five different rules of Shari`ah, i.e. obligatory (fard or wajib), recommended (mandub or mustahabb), permissible (mubah), disliked (makruh), prohibited (haram);

Multi marriage (or polygamy) takes-almost- the same rules of marriage furnished above. Meaning, it could be obligatory for the one who could not obtain his chastity with only one wife while being able to afford it, as well as to be just with his wives, recommended for…etc.