MISCONCEPTION 17: Islamic Polygyny Is Not Possible

A happy polygynous home

Points:

• Polygyny Belittles Women
• Discriminatory: Why Can’t Women Have Multiple Husbands?
• The Qur’an Disapproves of it

The Problem

Polygamy is a generic word which describes the setting in which an individual has more than one spouse. 

When a man has more than one wife, the setting is called polygyny while a setting in which a woman has more than one husband is called polyandry. ‘Polygyny’ is what is permissible in Islam, polyandry is an iniquity. 

The west has been able to sell the anti-polygyny ideology to some parts of the Muslim world. 

Polygyny was abolished in Turkey by the atheist, Kamal Ataturk in 1926, in 1956, the Tunisian government announced a ban on polygyny and in 2008 the Kurdistan region in Iraq did the same. 

The United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2000 reported that polygamy violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), according to the committee members,  there is lack of "equality of treatment with regard to the right to marry". In summary, it meant that polygamy, restricted to polygyny in practice, disregards the dignity of women and should be declared illegal.

Islamophobes have never ceased castigating Islam for permitting and even encouraging polygyny and they often the conviction that they have an axe to grind. Let’s examine the veracity of the points they raise.

REFUTATION

Polygyny Belittles Women

The idea is that one man having more than one woman to himself commonizes the womenfolk. Proponents of this idea always fail on reality check. Even though researchers believe there are slightly more men in the world than women, most countries in the world have more women than men. In America, there are 6. 5 million more women than men, in Russia it is 10.7 million, in France it is 1.7 million. The same trend is found in so many other countries. So many factors amount to a larger female population of women than men. Some of the are violence, war, suicide and dangerous lifestyles.

If you have a country of 10 people, 6 of them are likely to be women. If 4 men marry 4 women, what happens to the excess 2 women?

Countries across the globe are beginning the see the vacuity in criminalizing polygyny and breaking with precedent.

On December 29th 2018, Guinea in Africa legalized polygyny, on October 22nd 2019 Kenya legalized polygyny and on February 11th 2018 the Tanzanian President, John Magufuli, begged men in his country to marry multiples wives. 

He said in a speech, “Our women are crying every day due to lack of men to marry and support them economically hence they engage in prostitution. So please try to work hard and be productive so that you can help our women by marrying two or more wives provided you are able to provide for their basic needs".

Even non Muslim women in the West are seeing the fecundity of polygyny. Svetlana Peshkova is quoted to have said, “If some people condemn polygynous marriages it is because of imperialist and colonialist attitudes toward Muslim women who have for a long time been considered unable to articulate their own desires. If indeed they desire to enter into such marriages this should be up to them and articulated on their own terms.”

In January 2019, women in Tunisia started a protest on social media calling on the government to lift the ban on polygyny as the country is witnessing an explosion in the spinster population. 

To save face, westerners come up with a host of ‘solutions’.

(i) Lesbianism

This has been the most song solution of the west, if the 2 women cannot get husbands, why don’t they marry themselves? To sell this ‘solution’ the west has continued to bully the world’s countries into legalizing homosexuality. The west is indirectly saying, ‘every woman should rehearse being a lesbian, she might become one full time’. How many of the world’s women are attracted to other women?

(ii) Transgender

The west has also created an avenue to make it easier for lesbians to attract partners. There are now scientific procedures that can enable women develop masculine features.

(iii) Fornication

To enable women without husbands have a sex life, western nations have totally decriminalized fornication. It is totally okay for a man to sleep with twenty women simultaneously but, if a man gets married to two women concomitantly, he is arrested for bigamy (5 year jail term in America).

(iv) Prostitution

The UN General Assembly in 1949 adopted a convention that stated that "prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person"  requiring all signatory countries to punish all stake holders in prostitution and to abolish all special treatments or registration of prostitutes. 

But to our surprise, in January 2009, the convention was accepted by just 95 member nations while the other 97 member nations refused to formally accept it. These nations included: Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States (the champions of women’s rights). This event meant that many countries across the globe legalized prostitution. 

This is a ‘perfectly’ worked plan. Women often need bread winners, but how do you get a bread winner without a husband? Simple, ‘allow women roam the streets in search of daily bread winners’. In the Netherlands, 1 in 35 women is a prostitute. If you cannot enjoy sex and get bread as a wife, why not get it as a prostitute?

(v) Incest

There is no limit to the extent non Muslims will go to justify their stand against Islamic law. Incest is defined by the Macmillan Advanced Learners Dictionary as: sexual activity between people who are closely related, such as a parent and a child or a brother and sister.

This abominous act is legal in countries like Spain, France, Belgium, parts of America and many other countries.

‘As a woman, if you can’t get a husband have sex with your brother or father’.

This begs the question, how do these western ‘solutions’ protect the honour and dignity of women? Most women will prefer to be a wife than to be a mistress, a prostitute or a lesbian. 

Discriminatory: Why Can’t Women Have Multiple Husbands?

(i) Health

Even science has confirmed the fact that women were fashioned to be monogamous. Scientists have attributed cervical cancer to women having more than one ‘sexual partner’. Polyandry used to be a common practice among women in India before the 21st century but, with enlightenment and awareness, the practice has become an anachronism.

(ii) Life Expectancy

Even in cases where the woman does not come down with one form of cancer or the other, her life will still be endangered. If a woman has two husbands, how many times would she be having sex in a week and for how long? This is under the assumption that both husbands love her genuinely. 

How many children would she have and at what interval? Will she survive till menopause? Will she ever maintain a career? 

We see that a woman who does not die due to multiple husbands will still live a life of illness and pain.

(iii) Paternity of Children

How could we have determined the paternity of a child born to a woman with two husbands 1, 400 years ago? Paternity test was invented in the 1920s so yes, the paternity of children can be determined with ease in this era. 

However, what happens in a scenario where a particular husband wins consecutive paternity wars? That could be a causus belli that could put the woman in a precarious situation.

The Qur’an Disapproves of it

Some non Muslims have inanely alleged that polygyny is a crime even by Islamic standards. 

They bring up the verse of the Qur’an where Allah (SWT) says: “And you will never be able to be equal in feeling between wives, even if you should strive [to do so]. So do not incline completely toward one and leave another hanging. And if you amend your affairs and fear Allah - then indeed, Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.” Suratul Nisa (4:129)

In the beginning of this verse, Allah cautions Muslim men that they will always be apt to loving one wife more than another. Allah the Creator says it is in the nature of man. This can also be seen in the love some parents particularly have for a particular child. 

Still in the said verse, Allah makes no mention of any criminality in taking multiple wives rather; Allah gives advice on what is expected of polygynous men. This verse clearly does not mean what the ignorant wants to make the world believe.

In the same chapter containing the above mentioned verse, Allah Himself gives a big shinning and glowing green light for polygyny.

“And if you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry those that please you of other women, two or three or four. But if you fear that you will not be just, then [marry only] one or those your right hand possesses. That is more suitable that you may not incline to injustice.” Suratul Nisa (4:3)

Allah’s final Messenger and the one to whom the Qur’an was sent, Muhammad (SAW), was polygynous. Very few among the companions of Muhammad (SAW) had only one wife albeit it not being a crime.

The Islamic scriptures and Islamic history prove that polygyny is an integral part of Islam hence, this point is out rightly invalid.

It is vivid enough that Islam has always been right to sanction polygyny and those who stand against polygyny do so not for reasons supported by rational thinking but, by the mare desire to rebel against Allah through moral corruption.

Polygyny is an option and will forever remain an option.