E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 71 165 See report of CEDAW, consideration of the report of Algeria (A/54/38/Rev.1, p. 15, para. 91). 166 See report of CEDAW (A/55/38 (Part I), para. 150). 167 Ibid., para. 174. 168 See Jacques Rouquette, Rapport de synthèse, CHEAM Symposium (note 14 above). 169 See, in particular, the Muslim States’ reservations to the Women’s Convention (paragraphs 61 ff. above). 170 The exact term in regard to the subject of the present study is polygyny. This and polyandry (where a woman has more than one husband) are the two forms of polygamy. 171 See report of CEDAW, consideration of the report of Kyrgyzstan (A/54/38/Rev.1, para. 138). 172 Nepal, report of CEDAW (A/54/38/Rev.1, p. 60, para. 153); Congo, report on traditional practices affecting the health of women and the girl child (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, para. 66); Jordan, report of CEDAW (A/55/38 (Part I), para. 174); Burkina Faso, report of CEDAW (A/55/38 (Part I), para. 281); Morocco, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo and Kuwait, Report of the Human Rights Committee (A/55/40, vol. I, paras. 98, 193, 273 and 458). 173 See, to some extent, the example of Bangladesh, report of the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance (A/55/280/Add.2, para. 77). 174 This is the case in Tunisia, where the legislation punishes a polygamous husband and renders the second marriage void, even if it was not contracted in accordance with the law (article 18 of the Personal Status Code adopted in 1956). See, in the same vein, the example of Turkey. 175 A specific instance is war, where, in the absence of welfare institutions to care for widows and orphans, that responsibility was assigned to men through polygamy, whose social function of the past thus no longer has any raison d’être, the modern State being the framework of social support. 176 Verse 3 of surah 4 reads: “Marry of the women who seem good to you two, three or four and, if you fear that you cannot do justice, then only one”. However, verse 129 of the same surah cautions: “You will never be able to deal equally between your wives, however much you wish to do so”. 177 178 Note 14 above, p. 93. See Mohamed Talbi (note 12 above), pp. 140, 147 and 148. Polygamy is reportedly practised in some Christian communities in Africa, such as the Celestial Church of Christ in Benin. See the website www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/religio/no13/13a12ht.html. Also, in Pakistan, some Christians appear to have assimilated polygamy from their Muslim environment. See Farida Shaheed, op. cit. (note 144 above), p. 69.