What does that have to do with Empowering women?
You think it is OK for a 12yo girl to be forced into a marriage by the cult?
No, they wouldnt have any levers of power at their disposal. In those cults, the cult leaders- all older males- only “marry” one woman. The rest are not legally married so they dont run afoul of the bigamy laws. So, the only tool to use against these perverts is the pedophilia laws- when they claim a underage girl as a “wife” and make her pregnant, they can be arrested for sex with a underaged girl.
However, that tool is gone if the marriage is legal.
Currently the girls can report the behavior to the police since they are NOT participating in underaged sex. They are being raped. The problem is that they are either brainwashed or kept away from the public and the police. Once in a a while one of them escapes and arrests are made.
Being kept as a underaged sex slave in a compound in the desert by a cult is not being "empowered’, how can you possibly think it is?
Now I made it very clear that as long as all parties are true consenting adults , then plural marriages would be OK. That woudl be empowering women. Not making them 12yo sex slaves in a walled compound out in the desert.