Polygamy in Islamic Law

Muhammad and Polygamy

According to traditional sources, Muhammad practiced polygamy. Besides his numerous concubines, he married fifteen women and consummated his marriages with thirteen.^[1] According to Tabari, he was accused of being a "womanizer."^[2] He was also attributed the sexual prowess of many men:

Reasons for Muhammad's Marriages

Islamic scholarship justifies polygamy as a means of caring for widows and poor women, although many of Muhammad's wives were neither. In fact, one of his wives (his cousin, Zainab bint Jash) was originally the wife of his step-son Zaid bin Haritha. As was the case with Safiyah bint Huyayy, the traditional sources indicate that many of his marriages were the results of Muhammad's desire, not compassion for widows or poor women. This is evident in his six divorces. For example, he divorced ‘Amrah bint Yazid on their wedding night,^[3] due to her suffering from leprosy.^[4][5][6][7] He also divorced a women named Ghaziyyah bint Jabir when he realized that she was "old."^[8]

Muhammad nevertheless refused to allow Ali bin Abu Talib (the husband of his daughter Fatima) to take a second wife because "what hurts her, hurts me."^[9][10] This seems to indicate that at least in the case of his own daughter, he thought polygyny was hurtful to women.

Polygamy Permitted in Islam

Islamic law traditionally allows a man to marry up to four wives at any one time:

Islam also does not traditionally require that the man have the permission of his first wife before marrying a second:

The Consequences of Polygamy

Female Genital Mutilation and & other Chastity Assurance practices

Compared with monogamous arrangements, polygamous men must meet the needs of many more wives. Possibly in order to assure themselves of the chastity and fidelity of their many wives, polygamous men have developed a variety of chastity assurance practices, particularly in Islamic socieities:

• harems, which keep wives locked away, guarded by eunuchs;
• footbinding (as once practiced by the Chinese), which keeps wives from being unfaithful by reducing their mobility and independence;
• chaperoning and gender segregation, which hamper and eliminate interactions between the sexes;
• arranged marriages, which obviate the dangers that romance and courting poses to a girl's chastity and reputation;
• veiling, which makes girls less interesting and identifiable to males;
• "honor" culture, which exacts disproportionate punishments for (perceived or actual) 'un-chastity';
• female genital mutilation (FGM), which reduces a girl's capacity for sexual pleasure both physically (through the removal of the clitoris and labia) and mentally (through the effects of trauma). If a girl has been infibulated, her chastity is further guaranteed, because her vaginal opening is sealed with a covering of skin, the penetration of which is extremely painful and which leads to severe hemorrhaging that is difficult to conceal.

Bride-Price (mahr)

A bride-price (mahr) is a payment made by the bride-groom (or his family) to the bride (or her family). Since polygamy creates a scarcity of marriageable women, marriages in polygamous kinship systems often require that some form of bride-price be paid. This can make marriage unaffordable to low-ranking young men, even if they manage to find a bride. The heroes of folk tales in polygamous societies (such as One Thousand and One Nights) are often poor young men (such as Aladdin) struggling to find the wealth necessary to pay the bride-price of the girl he loves. The story is resolved when he becomes rich and powerful enough to marry her.

Nobel prize-winning economist Gary Becker argues in his book A Treatise on the Family^[11] that families of young women become the biggest supporters of polygamy because they possess an inherently scarce resource. Love matches and courtship are frowned upon because they risk reducing the bride-price (the couple may be tempted to elope, or the bride request a merely symbolic bride-price). Thus, in order to preserve their market value, the chastity and reputation of unmarried women must protected by such measures as FGM, purdah, child marriage, and arranged marriage.

Child Marriage

Child marriage is common in polygynous societies. One way of alleviating the 'bride famine' that polygyny creates among men in the lower strata of society is to allow prepubescent girls to be married. Dowry further incentivizes parents to sell off their daughters before adolescence, when there is a greater risk of her reputation being spoiled. If the bride is still a child, the dowry usually goes to her father, not to the bride. The bride-price for a child is also generally less than for an adolescent or adult woman. This makes children a more affordable option for poor and low status men.

The polygamous family

According to Somayya Jabarti of Arab News, Saudi Arabia has the second-highest divorce-rate in the world. Abdullah Al-Fawzan, a professor and sociologist at King Saud University in Riyadh, states that polygamy is responsible for up to 55 percent of divorces. He added that the loss of trust, sincerity, compassion and cooperation were also factors in the failure of marriages.^[12] The Maldives, an Islamic country with a 100% Muslim population,^[13] also has the highest divorce rate in the world, with 10.97 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants per year.^[14] Polygamy is legal in both countries, though in the Maldives, it is today relatively uncommon and subject to legal restrictions.

Islamic Defense of Polygamy

Muslim scholars often claim that the reason why Allah allowed men to marry four wives is that men are killed in battle, resulting in women outnumbering men. They also claim that the practice of polygyny curbs adultery, leading to happier marriages and fewer divorces. Nevertheless, world population and birth statistics today indicate a global male surplus.^[15]

External Links

• Total Population by Gender and Gender ratio, by Country - UN Statistics Division population 2009 (est.)
• Monogamy Reduces Major Social Problems of Polygamist Cultures - University of British Columbia, ScienceDaily, January 24, 2012
• Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account Gerry Mackie, American Sociological Review
• The puzzle of monogamous marriage Joseph Henrich et al, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

References