Polygamy 411

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A Saudi court has sentenced an employee of the kingdom’s religious police to 120 lashes for marrying six women.

The man said he was not educated enough to know that Islam does not allow men to marry more than four women at any one time, said an official at Ahad al-Massarha court in the southern province of Jazan.

“The judge did not believe him. Nobody believed him. I honestly did not,” the official told Reuters.

The court banned the man from standing as a preacher and leading prayers, ordered him not to travel abroad for a five-year period and to memorise two chapters from the Koran.

The accused, in his fifties, is not a member of the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’s morals squad but holds an administrative position there, the official said.

Shaikh Abdul-Mohsen al-Qaffari, spokesman of the virtue and vice commission, said it was the commission that discovered the case. Judge Salman al-Waadani, who pronounced the sentence, could not be reached for comment.

The court official said, “Members of the commission were accompanied by police when they arrested the man with one of his wives but it was the governor of Jazan who ordered an investigation onto the case”.

The commission makes sure Saudi society abides by an austere interpretation of Islam in the kingdom, where clerics control the justice system.

With more than 5,000 members, its squads roam streets and shopping malls to make sure unrelated men and women are kept apart, that shops and restaurants are shut at prayer time, that women are covered from head to toe and to search for alcohol and drugs.

Islam allows polygamy for men on condition the wives are treated fairly. (Reuters)

Credit for the above info: Arabian Business.com by Souhail Karam on Wednesday, 18 February 2010

Nairobi — South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has been in the news lately for many wrong reasons. JZ, as he is popularly known, is reported to have sired a love child with a divorcee.

What is seen as a breach of family trust has raised questions about Zuma’s personal judgement and whether he has the mettle to lead South Africa.

It has reignited attention to an embarrassing rape trial a few years ago in which he was accused of having non-consensual and unprotected sex with an HIV-positive family friend.

Many read political motive in those charges and Zuma was eventually cleared. But the trial embarrassed the man who, as vice-president, led the country’s moral regeneration movement initiated by former president Thabo Mbeki.

Zuma’s capacity to walk the talk on moral and ethical issues came into question and the latest incident shows that these remain valid and disturbing questions.

It is unclear what impact this has on Zuma’s standing amongst his majority black supporters in South Africa. But, going by the massive support he maintained throughout his rape and earlier corruption trials, it seems the black majority, who form the bastion of his support, are least bothered about his personal indiscretions.

JZ is a popular and highly accomplished political mobiliser who weathered what was widely seen as a carefully choreographed scheme to block him from ascending to high office following the conviction of his private financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, for corruption which forced his resignation as vice- president.

Justice Hilary Squire who presided over Shaik’s trial found that Zuma had a “generally corrupt” relationship with a fraudster who had bankrolled him in return for political favours which translated into lucrative government contracts.

As expected, Justice Squire’s ruling generated a great deal of hair splitting but Mbeki would have none of it. In his words, “the judgment (contained) some categorical outcomes which raised questions of conduct that would be inconsistent with expectations that attend to those who hold public office”.

A leitmotif of those who rallied to Zuma’s defence was to cast him as a victim of political machinations aimed at frustrating his political career. An underlying but barely subliminal line was to hack to a conspiracy theory of the Xhosa (represented by Mbeki) fighting a potential Zulu presidency.

These issues obscured the serious questions on integrity by a man aspiring for high office.

Zuma was, of course, eventually cleared of the corruption charges paving way for nomination by the African National Congress (ANC) to vie for the presidency.

The acquittal is seen as an act of deft political strategy notwithstanding the fact that the National Prosecution Authority was unable to sustain a conviction which entitles Zuma to the presumption of innocence.

Going by the notoriety of the past, it is almost certain that we have not had the last from Zuma’s rich cocktail of controversy. It begs the question whether a man prone to personal indiscretions can diligently execute his mandate and command respect on the world stage.

South Africa is not a nondescript republic. It is a regional leader whose economy is bigger than the combined GDP of the 14-member grouping of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

It has pioneered key blueprints like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) that was reconfigured at last week’s African Union heads of state summit in Addis Ababa. A key player in regional peace keeping initiatives in Burundi and DRC, it is among top contributors to the African Union budget.

The towering image of the iconic Nelson Mandela is a global signature for tolerance amongst different races and that one places special responsibility on the country’s leadership.

While it is difficult to fit Zuma within Madiba’s moral and ethical prism, he must safeguard his legacy and his country’s strategic importance in Africa and on the world stage.

It is within Zuma’s call to decide on personal matters like polygamy on which he has been candid and forthcoming. One cannot begrudge a man who opts to follow the dictates of his culture. However, personal indiscretions and a poor judgement should not be excused.

Simply put, Zuma’s conduct must befit the standing of his office and serve as a role model as the head of Africa’s signature republic. The choice is easy and obvious but one that calls for serious soul searching.

Credit for the above: Gichinga Ndirangu, 6 February 2010, opinion . Gichinga Ndirangu is a lawyer and policy analyst

Cultural Expert and Lecturer Ndela Ntshangase, at the University of Kula-Zulu Natal in South Africa, speaks about polygamy. Ntshangase says polygamy is selfLESSness in practice.

Listen to Audio: Polygamy is Teamwork . See photo of Jacob Zuma (President of South Africa) and his wives.

Audio provided by ”Times Live Media”- 2/5/10

GAZA, March 24 (Xinhua) — The Islamic Hamas movement has encouraged Gaza men to marry “a widow of a martyr” with a reward of 3,000 U.S. dollars for each, but the project sparked criticism by pro-women groups, according to a Hamas women activist Tuesday.

 Nadia Nasser told the press that the cash reward ” is to encourage the youths marry women who lost their husbands by the Israeli army fire.”

 ”The project aims at providing a stable life for the widows, especially the young who lost their husbands days or weeks after the marriage,” Nasser said, adding “this is the best way to protect the Muslim women.”

 In December and January, Israel conducted an unprecedented offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,300 Palestinians. About 43 percent of victims were women and children and the rest were men, most of them youths.

 However, the Hamas project sparked criticism by pro-women groups. Samira Abdel Aleem, the Director of Women Committees said that it “degrades the dignity of the Palestinian woman who always sacrificed alongside the man.”

 ”The woman has the right to choose her husband,” Abdel Aleem said, demanding the authorities to amend the personal status law and outlawing the polygamy.

 Hamas said those who want to get advantage of the project should be fiscally capable of “providing for two wives or more and must be ready to look after the children of the new wife.”

They also must be committed to the moral and religious principles and provide “a private place for the new wife.”

 Credit for the above info: 2009-03-24 10:28:04 GMT2009-03-24 18:28:04 (Beijing Time)  Xinhua English

Zuma weds for fifth time

Wearing leopard skins and carrying a Zulu shield, President Jacob Zuma on Monday married for the fifth time, in a traditional ceremony in his remote hometown.

The 67-year-old and his new bride, Thobeka Mabhija, 30 years his junior, danced in an open field at his homestead in Nkandla, a village deep in the countryside of KwaZulu-Natal.

The two formally wed when a tribal elder asked Mabhija if she accepted to join the Zuma family. When she agreed, he pronounced her Zuma’s third current wife.

His first wife, Sizakele Khumalo, whom he married in 1973, attended the ceremony. His second wife Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma was at the homestead preparing for the reception in a massive tent, where guests will celebrate throughout the night.

One of Zuma’s earlier wives committed suicide in 2000, and in 1998 he divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who remains in his inner circle and is now South Africa’s Home Affairs minister.

The guests included South Africa’s political and business elite, including Mandla Mandela, a grandson of the nation’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.

Local celebrities and music stars like Yvonne Chaka Chaka also attended the ceremony under overcast skies, with a gentle drizzle seen as a sign of blessing in African culture.

Several sheep, goats and cows have already been slaughtered for the feast to follow.

After initially declaring the ceremony would be private, it was finally opened to the public under heavy police presence. Local villagers, many dressed in animal skins and African cloth, trekked through muddy trails to attend.

Mabhija, who reportedly already has three children with Zuma, attended the president’s inauguration in May, where she was treated as one of the country’s three first ladies.

Since then, she has attended official functions.

Even while preparations for this wedding were under way, Zuma was reportedly preparing for his sixth marriage.

Earlier this week, a gift-giving ceremony was held signalling that he had paid the traditional dowry known as ilobolo for his latest fiancee, Bongi Ngema.

Zuma has also been linked to a Swazi princess, but has given no clear indication that he plans to wed her.

Polygamy is legally recognised in South Africa, but is mostly practised in rural areas of the country.

The practice came under the spotlight before the 2009 presidential elections, when Zuma’s polygamous lifestyle became a topic of discussion, especially among women’s rights activists.

Media and political analysts also debated the issue, but their attention focused mainly on logistical matters, such as security arrangements and medical costs for treating his large family.

Usually Zuma takes only one wife to state functions or on overseas trips.

His first wife, Khumalo, was given the place of honour at his inauguration in May, given higher prestige than Mabhija or his other wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma, whom he married in 2008 in a lavish ceremony.

Zuma and Khumalo have no children together and she still lives in Nkandla, generally preferring to avoid the public spotlight and rarely attending official functions.

He is reportedly father to at least 18 children. – AFP

http://gallery.iol.co.za/v/iolnews/Zuma+weds+again+04-01-2010/

Published on the Web by IOL on 2010-01-04 18:10:15

Published on the Web by IOL on 2010-01-04 18:10:15

Thirty-two-year-old Hagar Gouda is a divorcée. Married in her mid-twenties, she gave birth to a baby boy and divorced her husband three years later. She has spent the past six years raising her son and looking for a husband. So far, she has not found a man she likes well enough who is willing to help raise her son.

A potential solution is for her to enter into a misyar (traveler’s) marriage: a marriage which would allow her to spend as much time as she wants with her son in her home. The catch? Her new husband would not be obligated to buy her an apartment, nor live with her or spend money on her. Her answer: “Over my dead body.”

In mid April, headlines such as “Dar Al-Ifta Legalizes Prostitution” and “Misyar: Prostitution with Another Name” were everywhere, with local newspapers furiously editorializing on a supposedly new fatwa (religious edict) saying misyar marriages were sanctioned by Islam.

Misyar Matchmaking

Sunni Islam has always been adamant in its refusal to recognize mut’a (pleasure) marriages—a marriage with a specified end date, often entered into by couples with motives more temporary than setting up a home and bringing up children. Recognized as legal by the Shi’a sect of Islam, it is a type of marriage that is often exploited by men who ‘buy’ wives for a short duration of time. Unlike misyar marriages, a mut’a marriage needs no witnesses and no guardian.

A misyar marriage, on the other hand, seemingly strips women of even more rights. Rather than getting money from a short-term marriage, the wife gets absolutely nothing in terms of finances. She willingly gives up her right to live with her husband, her right to housing, and her right to nafaqa, a woman’s Islamic right to have her husband pay for her living and maintenance costs.

According to Dr. Ibrahim Negm, media spokesperson and advisor to Grand Mufti of Egypt Aly Gomaa’, Dar Al-Ifta did not issue a fatwa in April. What happened was that a reporter unearthed a reference to misyar in a list of decrees published last year by Al Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy, the highest Islamic authority in the nation.

The decree in question (Decree no. 218 of April 2007) listed types of marriage that are both Islamic as well as legal and those that are not — such as mut’a, boyfriend-girlfriend, and partner swapping. Number four on the list deals with misyar:

“It is the marriage which fulfills the pillars and conditions of Shariah [Islamic law], and has been recorded as an official document through a specialist intermediary. The summary of the matter is that the issue decided upon — in the contract or otherwise — is that the husband does not live with the wife, but visits her when he gets the opportunity. And it is a marriage built on all Shariah expectations [of marriage], except what the wife agrees to give up.”

There are four requirements for a marriage to be legal in Islam: consent of both parties, mahr (a gift from the groom to the bride), presence of two witnesses, and that it is made public. Historically, misyar was considered an option when the man traveled extensively and so could not live with his wife or had absolutely no financial means to give her a home.

An internet search turns up at least six online misyar matchmakers, with Msyaronline.com one of the largest in terms of members. Representatives from Msyaronline did not respond to interview requests, but the website offers four reasons promoting this type of marriage: “an increase in the number of spinsters and widows and those of special circumstances; the refusal of women to have a co-wife, leading men to marry the misyar way so his first wife doesn’t find out; the desire of unmarried men to get halal pleasure reconcilable with his circumstances; and the escape of some from the responsibilities of marriage and its costs, and this way is present [largely] in young men looking for this kind of marriage.”

Alexa.com, which tracks website traffic, ranks Msyaronline number 11,550 among the most-visited sites in the world, based on a three-month average. To put that into context, at press time, AhlyEgypt.com ranked number 9,056 and AmrKhaled.net ranked 6,851. Oprah Winfrey’s website ranked 1,579.

More than half of Msyaronline’s visitors come from just two countries: 32.6 percent of visitors are from Saudi Arabia, where it is ranked 441 on the list of most visited sites, while 24.9 percent are from Egypt, where it ranked 612. No more than 5 percent of its visitors come from any other country.

In Islam — according to Sunni scholars — a misyar contract is permissible because it follows all the conditions for marriage. However, says Negm, “a fatwa or decree on the validity of the misyar contract doesn’t mean [Dar Al-Ifta or the Islamic Research Academy] is advocating this type of marriage or that we are presenting it as a way to solve marriage problems in our society. It is not a license to marry this way.”

Many Islamic scholars have actually disallowed the practice of misyar marriage because of its perceived adverse effect on women, families, and societies at large.

Marriage on the Cheap

The proponents of misyar usually offer three reasons why it should be allowed: it allows couples with limited economic means to marry, it is a viable solution for spinsters or divorced women with limited marriage options or those of financial means who do not want a ‘full-time’ husband, and because a woman’s renunciation of her financial rights is only a moral and not a legal commitment, she can change her mind at any time.

However, even Msyaronline admits on the website that misyar marriage is not the “ideal desired picture of marriage, though it is legally correct.”

Costs of marriage, admit misyar opponents, are indeed high. In Saudi Arabia, dowries — the sum of money given to women by their fiancées — are so exorbitant that a group of young Saudi men launched a nationwide “Let her become a spinster campaign” this year, boycotting marriage because of the high costs. An average Saudi woman, says an article in the country’s Arab News, usually demands a dowry in the range of SR 50,000 (LE 75,000).

In April 2006, Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Fiqh Academy issued a fatwa saying that misyar was legal and valid. Arab News conducted an informal survey of 30 Saudi men and women regarding misyar: 60 percent of the men surveyed said they would consider misyar for themselves, while 86 percent of the women said they would not consider it. Only four women — all in the over-40 category — said they would.

Ma’aly Al-Faqih, a 29-year-old Saudi woman, believes misyar only compounds problems for Saudi women. “We already have a problem with polygamy because so many men can afford to have a second wife,” says Al-Faqih, a dentist and a TV presenter on a show called Hewar Melawen (Colored Dialogue). “But with misyar, so many more men would re-marry because it’s cheap to do so — they won’t have any financial rights or obligations! — and there’s less chance of their first wives finding out. But there are so many other problems to consider. What if the misyar wife gets pregnant?”

In Egypt, urfi marriage — where a couple signs a secret, unregistered marriage contract — is already stigmatized as a sex license for men who can easily ‘quit’ the marriage with few consequences. The Islamic Research Academy decree lists urfi as haram. Some see misyar as more of the same — a way to shirk responsibilities.

“It’s a great idea,” laughs 42-year-old shoe-shiner Khalid Abdel-Rahman. “It’s like being married without being married. Why would any man choose the hassle of financial burden when they can marry for free?”

No True Choice

That is partly what the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) fears. In a mid-April press release responding to the news that misyar was halal, the center states: “[Misyar] erodes family values by encouraging infidelity and immorality and facilitates multiple marriages built on secrecy and lies. [It] will lead to a deterioration of the family by opening the door to second marriages dissociated from the structure of the family. In addition, these marriages are detached from the personal, financial and family duties of both parties and are at the expense of the stability of the first/previous family.”

But what about all the spinsters, ask misyar advocates, who would be marrying of their own free will? According to government statistics, there are currently 9–10 million unmarried women in Egypt over the age of 30.

Not one woman interviewed by Egypt Today was go on record in favor of misyar — perhaps not surprising, given the social stigma attached to it — although one said she would consider it. Thirty-four-year-old beautician Amina, who asked that her real name not be used, says that after her father passed away, she spent her twenties taking care of her four brothers and sisters, unable to leave home. “I’m very old and I’m poor and I’m not beautiful. I haven’t received a suitor in three years. I do want a normal marriage and children, but I don’t think it’s going to happen,” she says. “If a good man offers to marry me the misyar way, I might say yes.”

To get people to register with the website, Misyaronline’s homepage lists screen names and personal ads for 10 women and 10 men who recently signed up. The full database is only available to registered users. According to the posts, the women, who were between 22 and 48 years old, were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and other countries. Among the new additions was ‘Eman,’ a 48-year-old Egyptian widow with older children who is looking for a “respectable man, knowledgeable, who can spend luxuriously on his wife and has a strong personality.”

Alwaleed Adel, owner and founder of Universal Marriage Office, the only marriage counseling and matchmaking office registered with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, rejects the idea of misyar. “It exploits women and it’s naive to say they are choosing this out of choice. Removing her options and saying she chose is no option. [] I bet you very few unmarried, childless women would choose misyar by choice. [] Misyar is a male convenience in a male-dominated country.”

The fear is that, in a country that puts a severe stigma on being unmarried, women who have not married by a certain age would agree to a misyar marriage even though they may have wanted a normal one, says Adel. They would agree to it even though misyar carries the stigma of being a lust-based alliance, tainting a woman’s reputation since it is believed that “she is giving herself away for free, marrying to have sex.”

Yomna Mokhtar, journalist and founder of “Spinsters for Change,” an informal Egyptian group that wants to change the negative attitude about unmarried women, believes this type of marriage is “a balwa soda [a horrible burden].” Unmarried at 27, she says that the pressures to marry are not enough to coerce her into a misyar marriage, ever. “It basically means marriage is only about a sexual relationship — this is what it has been reduced to,” she says. “There is no living together, no affection, no family, no kids, no security. I don’t even recognize this as marriage; if it becomes normal it will ruin the cornerstone of society — the family.”

Adel adds, “The nucleus and brain cell of any society is family and it is already problematic in Egypt. It’s hard enough to force neglectful fathers in normal marriages to fulfill their rights, what will happen to any children born from a misyar marriage?”

The Universal Marriage Office founder, who also has a TV show and appears on the radio once a week to talk about the family, conducted a study in March 2009, surveying 500 random young men ages 25–35 who had never been married. Adel found that 18.7 percent of them said they were not married because of the new updates in the family law that demand too much of them financially — alimony, maintenance, custody etc.

He also quoted a statistic saying the average age of marriage has increased by 50 percent for women and 38 percent for men in one generation.

Ghada El-Bedawi, one of the founding members of Mawada, a non-profit organization that gives courses to young couples beginning their married lives, agrees. “Marriage should be more than this,” she says. “It should be to build a home and generations. Misyar marriage is even worse than mut’a because at least in mut’a we admit it’s just about sex. Misyar tries to pass itself off as respectable. How will sons born of this marriage be raised as responsible, hardworking men who will raise a family? [How will girls] respect themselves as worthy of more than what their mothers settled for?”

In the end, many scholars agree that although misyar sticks to the letter of Islamic law, it does not stick to the spirit of the religion. Islam considers marriage a mithaq, a solemn covenant that should not be undertaken lightly. Negm says that even though the Grand Mufti and the Islamic Research Academy have said that misyar is technically permissible, “it does not mean that we advise the youth to practice it. [] This is an issue where we must open the door to discussion to the sheikhs to discuss the social and human dimensions of its [application]. And only then [can we] release a general fatwa saying whether [misyar] is a potential substitute or solution to problems like lack of housing and spinsterhood, or that it results in bad consequences to the society and family.” Et

Credit for the above info: By Ethar El-Katatney-Egypt Today, November 2009, volume 30, issue 11,

RAWANG, Nov 14 — Don’t marry young virgin girls; marry single mothers or widows instead. This was a suggestion made recently by a Kelantan state official to would-be polygamists.

But the idea drew flak from some critics, who said instead that more efforts should be made to reduce divorce rates and assist single mothers.

The issue of polygamy is being hotly debated now, with the controversial Kelantan official’s suggestion and the emergence of a Polygamy Club founded in August by the wife of a polygamist.

Hatijah Aam, 55, said she started the club with the aim of curbing social ills such as prostitution and adultery. It has 300 members.

“After sharing the same man for 30 years, we are like sisters,” Hatijah told The Straits Times. Sitting beside her, Noraziah Ibrahim, 52, the younger wife of Hatijah’s husband, smiled.

Noraziah met Hatijah’s husband after her own partner had died.

“She had children to feed. Can you imagine? She needed help,” said Hatijah.

The two are married to 72-year-old Ashaari Muhammad, patriarch of a clan spawned from five marriages — he has since divorced one wife, while another died in a car accident while on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in 2003.

Of his 38 children, 19 sons and four daughters are also polygamists. Ashaari has 200 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

“Some people think polygamy is bad, but it is actually a beautiful thing,” said Hatijah.

Most Malaysians remember Ashaari as having led a deviant Islamic sect that was banned in 1994 because of his claims that he was able to absolve sins, and that an Islamic messiah from the east would appear ahead of a prophesied doomsday.

Ashaari suffered a stroke in 2003, and is now unable to speak. His third wife was not present at the interview as she was tending to him.

The family’s story is just one example of polygamous marriages in Malaysia.

Muslim men are allowed up to four wives under Islamic law. Critics say the practice is cruel and has been distorted from its original purpose.

The practice was prevalent during Prophet Muhammad’s era to provide for the many widows and orphans, as a consequence of men dying in frequent wars.

Activists say most modern polygamists in Malaysia marry younger women and neglect their first wives.

While Hatijah’s family seems to be living harmoniously, rights groups argue that most polygamous families suffer abuse and jealousy.

Sisters in Islam (SIS), a non-governmental organisation which upholds the rights of Muslim women and campaigns against the practice, says polygamy is not a solution to prostitution.

“Marriage — whether polygamous or not — cannot be a cure-all for an issue as complex as sex work,” SIS programme manager Masjaliza Hamzah told The Straits Times.

“Society should stop seeing marriage as the one-stop answer to the issues and concerns faced not only by women sex workers, but also single mothers, widows and older women.”

She quoted verses from the Quran which discourage polygamy, and pointed out that although Prophet Muhammad practised it, he did not allow his son-in-law to marry another woman unless he divorced the Prophet’s daughter.

Only 2.8 per cent of Muslim marriages here are polygamous.

Different states also have varying criteria for would-be polygamists.

Kuala Lumpur requires a written consent or views from existing wives. In Perak, a man’s promise to treat wives fairly is sufficient.

Hanafiah Hamzah, a 53-year-old television cameraman, said strangers look down on him for having more than one wife. “Society looks down on polygamists. People always think it is for the sex,” he told The Straits Times.

Hanafiah married his first wife, who is now 47, two decades ago. Seven years later, he married his second wife, now 36.

While both wives are cordial to each other, he admits it is not easy.

“You cannot be fair to both of them. If a wife or a child is sick, who do you go to?

“If my friends say they want to be polygamous, I always tell them, you better not. My first wife never used to complain, but now she gets frustrated easily. It is my mistake,” he said.

Masjaliza said there is some stigma attached to the practice: “People don’t wear it like a badge of honour. There is a level of discomfort. Maybe people are ashamed.”

Indeed, while some top leaders in the ruling Umno and the opposition PAS have more than one wife, most of them attend official functions accompanied by only one wife.

But this is not deterring Hatijah, who is branching out Polygamy Club to Indonesia.

The government has warned that the club could be a ploy.

The family has been ‘trying very hard to deceive the public’ into reviving the banned religious cult through religious, business and social activities, Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz, director-general of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia, told the New Straits Times. — Straits Times

Credit for the above info: The Malaysian Insider, Thursday, November 19, 2009

Jakarta, 2 Nov. (AKI) – Indonesian pro-polygamy groups are not only facing protest from angry housewives and women’s rights activists; a new group of men calling themselves the Men’s Coalition against Polygamy (Kolmi) has also joined the struggle.

Kolmi spokesman Abdul Hamim Fauzie said via a statement in the capital Jakarta on Sunday that the coalition considered the practice of polygamous marriage degrading, not only to women, but to men as well.

“Facts show that polygamy leads to nothing but domestic violence, discrimination and the abuse of human rights,” he said.

“However, polygamists often argue that polygamy is necessary to avoid infidelity and love affairs. They also claim that polygamy is a part of their religious beliefs. Men use these arguments to justify their polygamous practices,” he added.

The coalition also said that it regretted a number of discriminative articles in the current marriage law in Indonesia.

“The law legalises men to have more than one legal wife when their spouses are seriously ill or sexually incapable.

“This is very unfair, especially to women, because the law only accommodates the needs of men,” Abdul said.

Meanwhile, Muslim scholar Siti Musdah Mulia said that people practising polygamous marriages who quoted verses from the Muslim holy book or Koran to justify their behaviour were misinterpreting the message.

“Those people must not quote the Koran by verse. They need to read the whole context and understand its real essence before saying the Koran endorses polygamy,” she said.

Musdah said the Koran actually says that Islam aimed to eradicate polygamous practices, not to endorse them.

“Islam considers polygamy an unjust practice that originated in the dark ages. Therefore, Islam sought to eradicate such practices, but due to the severe reaction it caused, it took some time to fully eradicate the practice from the culture at that time,” she said.

Musdah said that she was not surprised to see that a number of men decided to bond together and fight against polygamy.

“Actually, anti-polygamy figures in the past were mostly prominent male clerics. The Prophet Muhammad himself was very angry when one of his son-in-laws planned to engage in polygamy,” she said.

Recently, controversy has sparked following an official launch of a polygamy club, dubbed the Global Ikhwan, in Bandung, the capital of West Java province.

The club, originating from Malaysia, cites the noble aim of helping single mothers, reformed prostitutes and aging single women find spouses. As soon as the club was established, condemnation poured in, especially from housewives and women’s activists.

Ironically, the club is chaired by a woman named, Hatijah Binti Am, who has insisted the club could introduce people to the ‘beautiful’ side of polygamy.

Previously, a number of polygamy scandals have reduced the popularity of public figures engaged in the practise.

Over 85 percent of the 240 million Indonesians are Muslim and most of them practice a moderate version of the religion.

Credit for the above info: Adnkronos International, Nov. 15, 2009