Women and the Question of Polygamy in Islam

Abstract

In general, Western studies on Muslim women in Muslim societies have shown a tendency to assume that non-Western cultures ought to function according to Western norms. They tend to highlight certain practices in Muslim societies, examining them according to their own Western values. Hence it is often claimed not only that Muslim women are oppressed, suppressed, ill-treated, and subordinated, but also that these fundamental abuses of women’s rights are natural concomitants of basic principles of the Islamic religion. In other words, Western studies on Muslim women, constricted within their own paradigm, tend to confuse Islam at the practical level with Islam at the ideal level. Very often, then, images of Muslim women in the world are constructed without studying Islam itself. The majority of Western studies attempt to explain the status of Muslim women through using statistical analysis and comparing the results with their own cultural areas, pointing out that Muslim countries have low rates of economic activity by women, low female literacy and low female school enrolment at all levels. Such data are used to justify specific hypotheses which they propose in regard to Muslim societies.1 The use of statistical data on fertility rates is another example, deployed to show that Islam, by its nature, contains ‘procreationalism’ which leads to the confinement of Muslim women to child-rearing and discourages them from participating in outside social activities. Specific restrictive social practices, such as veiling and the seclusion of women, are referred to in vague terms such as ‘Islamic restrictions’ or ‘Islamic tradition’ without providing clear definitions.