South Africa is considering the legalization of polyandry as part of its moves to authenticate new marriage laws.

THE VENT REPUBLIC reports that South Africa Department of Home Affairs has in a 67-page policy document published mooted the idea among other proposals.

The document called the Green Paper on Marriages sought to create a new Marriage Act that will give leeway to the recognition of recognized, legal marriages as obtained in other parts of the Western world.

South Africa does not currently recognize some marriages, with some activists feeling this does not promote equality. Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, and Rastafarian marriages are outlawed in South Africa marriage law and this new document proffers a recognition for those marriages.

Part of the document reads:

“The failure to recognise these religious marriages is untenable and discriminatory. Moreover, activists submitted that equality demands that polyandry be legally recognised as a form of marriage,”

The implication of this is that women can now marry more than a husband, while religious allowances for men to have more than 4 wives would now become legal.