As if we didn’t have enough hilarious news for the start of April, there is another campaign brewing in Russia: Men wish to be able to ban ex-wives from the continuous use of the family surname. The husbands want their names back.
Russian men wish to take back their surnames
The right to take a spouse’s surname is given to both males and females when they register a marriage. However, as we know, it’s usually the lady who takes the husband’s surname.
Now Russian men are campaigning for the right to retract their family’s historic surname in case of a marriage breakdown.
The guys explain that they feel it’s unfair the ex-wife is able to use the surname after they are no longer a couple.
The new broke on 1 April and at first looked like a Fool’s Day joke. But Russian news outlets published it one by one, having to add it wasn’t an April Fool’s piece of news but a real thing.
What’s in a name?
The initiative comes from Vladimir Petrov, a representative of Duma from the Leningrad region. The lawmaker applied to the Ministry of Justice asking to revamp the Family Code of Russia, so that the privilege to keep the acquired family name would be a matter of negotiations during the divorce and not an undisputable right.
Petrov reasons that men are ‘categorically against’ the fact that ex-wives continue calling themselves the same name, but they have no ability to do anything about it. After a huge disappointment in love, ex-husbands wish to wipe off the traces of a former marital alliance.
“I am unable to assist such people in their life problem”, Petrov complained.
The parliamentarian proposes to give the right to the initial owner of the name to allow or disallow its usage after the divorce, if the other spouse took it during the marriage. If the husband doesn’t allow the wife to continue using his surname, she would have to go back to her maiden name.
What do you think about the idea for a divorcing spouse to be able to request the ex-partner to drop the married surname? Is it a good idea or a bad idea? If she is giving back the ring, should she also give back the name?
Read also:
- Why so many young Russian women are divorced?
- Un-divorce: Husbands and wives are ordered to get back together in Russia
- Is Russia 40 years behind the West?
- 55% of Russians don’t believe in equal rights of men and women
For me thats funny need a campaign for this.
Should be evident by base: if they agrre to keep, then keep, if not, than not keep.
Fantastic. It is good to see Russian men still have stones, which is not surprising in a land where GMO is banned and the word “organic” does not exist in supermarkets because, everything is organic. Oh, by the way, Russia is the only Christian country with “almost” a replacement birthrate, the highest White birthrate in the world, yet still, 1 in 3 women has had an abortion, and 50% of babies are killed by their own mothers before they are even born. Infanticide is apparently a national sport in Russia. Meanwhile, China gains a surplus 8 million every year after… Read more »
I agree with Petrov. He must be a bright man !
That’s hilarious but i agree with that statement. As for me i also don’t want to keep my ex-husband’s surname. To end a failed marriage means to start from a scratch. And this old surname kinda connects you with your past life. Well maybe changing a surname back shouldn’t be an obligation. But it is a right thing to do.
if you wanna have a fresh start, you’d better get rid of your ex-husbands surname. I do not understand women who have no desire to drop their married surname, except those who have common children. Girls, why do connect the rest of your life with the ex? Petrov is absolutely right.
It is really amazing. I know some women who took their previous surnames after the divorce because they didn’t want to have the same surnames with their ex-husbands. And there are some girls who don’t take their spouses’ surnames when they register a marriage. The change of the surname is connected with some inconveniences. I hope it’s a joke.
It is quite a funny thing for the first look. But when you think about it the second time, you realize that actually it is not a bad idea. And I’m sure there is a number of women that will support this initiative and agree to “give the name back” – mostly if they are not in good relationship with each other.
I think it should not be something like an obligatory action for woman – I still believe that women have rights to choose, same goes for men.
In Russia I have always seen divorced women to keep the surname of their former husbands, even if the divorce had been painful. It is a tradition. In France it is different, but not completely. A divorced woman can ask the judge to keep the name and the former husband has no right to cancel this decision later. It is not a good thing. His new wife can be very unhappy about the ex-wife having the same name as her, without any possibility to change the situation legally.
If it is not a joke, then it is a shock, really. For two reasons. The first is the depth of objectives of the Leningrad region’s Duma. The second is the depth of disappointment of some former Russian husbands. They wish to erase all the traces of a former marital alliance by inducing their ex-wives to return to their maiden names. What about children? Children are very vivid trace. How they are going to sponge them out of their lives? Besides, every woman has the right to have common surname with her children even after divorce with their father.
I don’t understand why men make so much noise about it. It’s problematic from the point of view of the documents to change your surname again. If the woman wants her maiden name back, she can do it but if she’s okay with her husband’s surname why change it? And what about kids? Whose surname must they have?