Marital cohabitation or “Zawadj El Moutaâ” in Algeria, a pervasive phenomenon on the rise

After the reported rise in affairs related to incest, sexual abuse on under age youngsters and rape over the past few years, the Algerian tribunals are now dealing regularly with other affairs related to marital cohabitation or “Zawadj El Moutaâ” according to several lawyers met by Echorouk reporters on the spot.

• The assigned lawyers have been treating numerous cases in relation with women concubines who try to establish links of parenthood of their children or marriage certificates in order to be able to benefit from the legacy after the death of their “illegitimate husbands” with whom they had lived in marital cohabitation.
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• In order to reach this objective, most of them resort to genuine witnesses and others don’t waver to call in fake witnesses.
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• As a result, scandals break out now and then provoking the splitting of several families.
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• These women end up being hapless victims after giving birth  to illegitimate babies and are thrown out and left in the lurch by their male concubines who then seek younger and more beautiful women for another relation of illegal marital cohabitation.
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• Lawyer Fatma-Zohra Benbrahem told Echorouk that the proliferation of the marital cohabitation phenomenon was mostly due to the flat refusal by numerous families of polygamy on account of Algerian traditions or financial reasons linked to legacy.
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