JAKARTA, April 8, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A new Indonesian film is stirring heated debate about polygamy, which some say is widespread in the world's most Muslim populous country.

"I want my audience to think," director Nia Dinata told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, April 8.

"It is a satirical drama," she explained. "I show in my own way that these women are not happy. My film is about choice."

"Berbagi Suami", or literally Share Your Husband, presents three men from very different social circles who choose to take a second, third or fourth wife.

The film has been hailed by critics here for prying open the hushed topic.

"Polygamy, although commonly practiced within Indonesian society, is not frequently discussed or even openly acknowledged in most circles," wrote a critic in the English-language Jakarta Post.

"For that reason alone, Berbagi Suami, which breaks ground socially, is one of the most significant as well as finely crafted films to emerge in recent years."

Indonesia has a population of 220 million, of which Muslims make up 87 percent.

The film director estimates that some 10 percent of Indonesian families are affected by polygamy.

She maintains that the practice has been very common in the country for centuries.

"Way before the Dutch (colonialists) came here, we had Buddhist or Hindu empires where the men used to have concubines," recalled Dinata.

"It's there in our history."

Prominent feminist Musdah Mulia said polygamy is accepted by a majority of Indonesians despite its difficulties.

"My research has proved that polygamy has increased domestic violence and abuse against children and has increased unregistered marriages", she told AFP.

Without marriages being registered, she says, women and children are not protected by the law.

Mulia is campaigning for a reform of the family code in the mould of Tunisia, which has abolished polygamy.

Polygamy shifted largely underground during the rule of former president Suharto.

Under pressure from his wife Siti Hartinah, he adopted a 1970s law forbidding civil servants to marry a second time without the assent of his first wife and his superior.

The law remains in force.

Puspo Wardoyo, a restaurateur who owns a chain of more than 30 outlets, insists that he leads a happy life with his four wives.

He believes polygamy is necessary to compensate for a demographic imbalance in favor of women, and that it dissuades men from having secret affairs.

Puspo appears frequently in the media surrounded by his big family and his four wives insist they are happy.

Islam sees polygamy as a realistic answer to some social woes like adulterous affairs and lamentable living conditions of a widow or a divorced woman.

A Muslim man who seeks a second or a third wife should, however, make sure that he would treat them all on an equal footing, even in terms of compassion.

The Noble Qur'an says that though polygamy is lawful it is very hard for a man to guarantee such fairness.

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