Polygamy, though not widely practiced, is legally sanctioned in Indonesia assuming the husband can meet the stipulated obligations of the institution. In Islam, one of those obligations is supposed to be that they have enough wealth to support all of their wives equally. It seems a question of fiscal fairness between a man’s two wives in Aceh might have led to the second killing the first.
The police chief for Aceh’s Bireuen regency, Riza Yulianto, told the media that the incident began late Sunday afternoon in Bireun regency’s Pulo Payang Village. Darmawati, the 38-year old first wife of Rusli, a 40-year-old farmer, had come to his garden to ask her husband for some household money.
Rusli was in his garden with his second wife, 21-year-old Herawati, who was helping her husband cut grass to feed their cattle.
The police chief said Darmawati’s house is about 2 kilometers from Rusli’s garden. As soon as he saw her, Rusli asked Darmawati to go back home in order to avoid a commotion.
According to the police account, Darmawati left and Rusli went back to cutting grass for some time until he cut his hand, causing him to put down the machete he had been using.
Soon after, Darmawati returned to the garden and threw a stone, hitting Herawati in the head.
“She threw a stone at me and blood was coming from my head. I don’t know, but suddenly I had stabbed her. I went home directly with a headache,” Herawati said as quoted by Tribun.
Rusli tried to stop her but was unable to stop Herawati from hacking at Darmawati, who died later that night from her wounds. Herawati is currently in the custody of the police but media reports did not mention what she has been charged with exactly.
