After the ban on triple talaq the Government has set its eyes on polygamy, more specifically polygyny. It looks like the Muslim personal law has suddenly become the prime concern of the present Government that takes special interest in such cases for giving quick judgements, giving a blind eye to much important matters affecting the nation or ignoring important cases pending in the courts which if resolved on time could benefit larger sections of the society. Every now and then there is a new petition filed against some or the other law related to Muslim personal law. Polygamy is the current topic of debate.
The ayah which speaks of polygyny in the Qur’an is: “And if you be apprehensive that you will not be able to do justice to the orphans, you may marry two or three or four women whom you choose. But if you apprehend that you might not be able to do justice to them then marry only one wife.” (Surah Nisa: 5)
About the revelation of the ayah there are three commentaries:
‘Aishah, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), says that this ayah was revealed to remedy an evil that was prevalent in the days of “Ignorance”. The guardians of the orphan girls used to marry them for their wealth and beauty, with the intention of keeping them under their power because they had no one to defend their cause; then they treated them unjustly without any fear. Therefore, when they became Muslims, they had misgivings about marrying orphan girls. Accordingly, the Qur’an advised them to marry women other than orphan girls in their charge, if they feared that they would not be able to do justice to them.
Ibn-i-Abbas and his disciple Ikrimah assert that this Commandment was given to eradicate an injustice that was prevalent at that time. In pre-Islamic days, there was no limit to the number of wives and some people would marry even a dozen of them but when they could not meet the increasing expenses, they were forced to grab the property of their orphan nephews and other helpless relatives. Therefore, Allah restricted the maximum number of wives to four, and enjoined that this too, was subject to the condition that one should do justice to all of them.
SaÆid bin Jubair, Qatadah and some other commentators declare that this Command was given to safeguard the interests of wives. They say that even before the advent of Islam, injustice to the orphans was looked upon with disfavour, but in regard to wives, it was different; they would marry as many as they liked and would treat them cruelly and unjustly without any fear of the society or pangs of conscience. Therefore, Allah warned them that they should refrain from doing injustice to their wives as they did in the case of orphans. Therefore, they should not marry more than four wives and that too, only if they would do justice to them.
Hence from above commentaries it can be concluded that
Polygamy is an option and not a compulsion;
The ayah was not revealed to give open permission for polygyny but a just and fair way to treat orphans;
The ayah was revealed to restrict the already prevalent polygyny and limit it to only four wives at a time;
The ayah subjects polygyny to the condition of equity, irrespective of whether multiple marriages were with orphans or with women in general; and
The ayah is revealed as a concern for justice i.e. duties to be borne by the husband and justice to be followed in terms of all wives.
Polygyny, which is now frequently used against Islam and Muslims, was in fact prevalent among all communities in all times. 1961 census survey, which is considered the last one to look at marriages by religion and community in India, found that incidence of polygyny was the least among Muslims, with just 5.7% of the community likely to practise it. The Hindus actually had a higher incidence rate of polygyny, at 5.8%, although other communities, including Buddhists and Jains, were proportionally even more likely to practise polygyny. At the top were tribals, 15.25% of whom were polygamous.
Subsequent data seems to confirm this. A survey carried out by the government in 1974 put the polygyny figure at 5.6% among Muslims, and 5.8% for upper-caste Hindus. Research by Mallika B Mistry of the Gokhle Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune in 1993, later recorded by John Dayal, also concluded that “there is no evidence that the percentage of polygamous marriage (among Muslims) is larger than for Hindus.” Many eminent personalities including politicians, film actors, businessmen, etc. are guilty of polygamy in India and around the world.
Ritu Menon, a feminist publisher and independent scholar, who worked on the subject as co-author of the book Unequal Citizens: A Study of Muslim Women in India, said regarding polygamy:
“It may be allowed by Muslim personal law, but the incidence rate is not that high. This is true particularly in relation to Hindus, but across all communities, polygamy is not that common. Bigamy, on the other hand, is fairly common and that’s true across religions.”
Goa, which is considered to be the idol of uniform civil code, allows limited polygamy to Hindus and bigamy has been recognised to have civil effects. Decree dated December 16, 1880, which exists in the statute book under the title Codigo de Usos e Costumes de Goa (Code of Usages and Customs), contains the following provisions applicable in the state’s family law regime regarding polygamy.
Article 3 of this decree states as under:
“However, the marriage contracted by a male Gentile Hindu by simultaneous polygamy shall not produce civil effects; except in the following cases only (1) Absolute absence of issues by the wife of the previous marriage until she attains the age of 25 years. (2) Absolute absence of male issue, the previous wife having completed 30 years of age, and being of lower age, ten years having elapsed from the last pregnancy; (3) Separation on any legal grounds when proceeding from the wife and there being no male issue, (4) Dissolution of the previous marriage as provided for in Article 5.”
Further Article 4 states:
“The indispensable conditions for the simultaneous marriage are as follows: (1) Proof of any of the circumstances mentioned in the preceding article through the court; (2) Consent of the previous wife, expressed in a public deed, in the cases falling under clauses 1 and 2 of the said Article 3”.
– Source: Family Laws of Goa, Vol 1 by MS Usgaoncar.
Nevertheless, we find only Muslim personal law is at target and many organisations, NGOs, including the government is insistent that the Muslim community needs to have a law against polygamy, to move towards a society that treats women with dignity and equality.
Since now it is clear that polygamy was and is the custom of all communities and also forms the part of law in some or the other way, let us analyse why there is scope for Polygyny, which is mentioned in a form of law in the Qur’an.
For increasing human race, a sexual relationship between a man and a woman is essential. Now if this relationship is legal, it will benefit the humanity otherwise it will bring destruction. The human history is witness that in each and every society, this legal relationship existed. Every society and religion encourages and values this legal relationship and tries to stop other illegal relationships between a man and a woman.
Hence the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said:
“Oh the group of young people! who would you be able to marry, should marry them. It bows the eyes and avoids people from sexual crimes.”
Keeping this in mind, the following situations serve the purpose of polygyny:
If we compare the world population in terms of sex ratio we see a number of countries where the number of women is more than that of men. So if we go with the ideology of one man and one woman, there would be no partners left for many women.
According to medical sciences, a fit husband has more sexual demand than the wife. The wife, having much reason, physical, psychological, etc. cannot afford a sexual intercourse consecutively and her demand is less than that of the husband.
Also there are women chronically ill and with less or no interest in sex who if divorced to find another partner for the man to satisfy his basic need as per this demand, would be left helpless, lonely and without support. Polygamy in such cases serves as a boon to the woman whose husband undergoes a second marriage maintaining the love, emotion, physical and financial support to his first wife. This also helps other women to be in healthy relationship of wedlock rather than serve the needs of men through illicit relationship spoiling her own life.
A large presence of widows, divorcees and orphans demands that one man marries several women that their problem may be solved, with such a condition on the husband that justice is done to all wives. Such a condition also enforces man to consider multiple marriages as a serious thing and not a play game and hence would be the last option for any sensible man to act upon. The point to note here is that such widows and divorcees are not the choice of bachelors and there is shortage of widowed men as compared to widowed women since the rate of death among men is more than that of women. Modern medical sciences have proved that women have more powerful immune system than men. Their bodies can fight many diseases easily than men. In this case too, the number of women increases and death of men occur most. The 2010 statistics of wikigender ( data and statistics) confirms this statement stating that mortality rate among females across is 6.7 and that among males is 7.7.
In cases of war many women become widows and many are left homeless and unsecured facing extraordinary challenges in life which most of the women affected by war are facing today. They are even made captives and mistreated. As against this the Qur’an permits the men to marry them instead of putting them in ill-use. It is on the record that after World War II, in Alemania when deaths of men occurred in great numbers, the women demanded for second and third marriages so that they could lead a satisfactory life and it was the need of the time. Similarly, after World War II, The Young Council of Munich, permitted polygamy.
Polygyny is viewed as a great injustice to the woman who has to bear the pain of sharing her husband with other woman. The question here is: Are those who do not follow Polygyny not really engaged in relationships with more than one woman? In fact, there is a large number of men from every community involved in illicit relationships with women without giving them legal status of wife thus making the women objects of use and throw them with no respect to their feelings, emotions, needs and honour. Is this not injustice to the women? Such relationships have also increased the number of illegitimate children, thus destroying the social structure. This has also led to rise in prostitution and human trafficking business.
The psychologist Nigel Barber in his article “The Three Reasons for Polygamy” mentions:
“Humans turn to multiple marriage for the same three basic reasons that birds do (scarcity of males, selection for disease resistant genes, and defence of breeding territory and its economic equivalents). Contrary to popular assumptions, multiple marriage had nothing to do with poverty, backwardness, or oppression of women.”
Taking the example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) in this context is instructive. He gave the world an ideal example of a chaste life up to the age of 25, then a monogamous life with a noble widow of 40 years whom he had married at the age of 25. He was married to her for 25 years. It was only after her death when he had reached the age of 50 that he entered into other marriages to promote friendships, create alliances or to be an example of some lesson to the community; also to show the Muslims how to treat their spouses under different conditions of life. Among his wives were the young as well as old, widows and divorcees, as well as freed slaves.
In the words of Mrs. Annie Besant, a founder member of Theosophical Society, Madras, India in her book Life and Teachings of Mohammed, writes: “There is pretended monogamy in West, but it is really polygamy without responsibility; the mistress is cast off when the man is weary of her, and she sinks gradually as the ‘woman of street’, for the first lover has no responsibility for her future. She is hundred times worse off than the sheltered wife and mother in polygamous home. We see thousands of miserable women who crowd the streets of Western countries during the night. We must surely feel that it does not lie within the Western mouth to reproach Islam for polygamy. It is better for woman, happier for woman, more respectable for woman, to live in polygamy, united to one man only, with legitimate child in her arm, surrounded with respect than to be seduced and cast off in the street, perhaps with an illegitimate child outside the pale of Law.”
Considering the above points, ban on polygamy would only create more complications to women issues and the men would be free to use and throw women without bearing the burden of family responsibility.
[The writer is based in Panjim, Goa]