On March 23, 2007, about forty women protested in Kyrgyzstan’s capital against a plan to legalize polygamy. Under then-current statutes, polygamy was punishable with up to two years in prison. Proponents of legalization in this largely Muslim country believed such restrictions were unnecessary, the unfortunate remnants of an age when Kyrgyzstan was controlled by the Soviet Union.1 It may be strange to think of polygamy’s popularity rising, but as the influence of Islam increases, so does its ability to mold society into the image of the Qur’an.

Most Muslims find approval for polygamy in Sura 4:3, a text that allows up to four wives—so long as the husband treats each equitably. Thus, Muslims who exercise their “right” to marry plural wives are quick to defend this practice on religious grounds.

For example, Aa Gym, a television Muslim preacher in Indonesia, recently married his second (and considerably younger) wife. Many women’s advocates in Indonesia responded to this high-profile case by calling for an end to polygamy. Muslim leaders and scholars, however, simply asserted in Gym’s defense that, according to the Qur’an, a Muslim man may have up to four wives.

Similar reasoning can be found in the United States. When “Ms. D,” a New York immigrant, complained because her husband brought home a second wife, he also cited the Qur’an and “told her to get used to it.”

The polygamy of Moussa Magassa, another New York immigrant, was uncovered when his New York residence burned down and investigators, interviewing the survivors, discovered his two wives. The Magassas are from Mali where 43% of women are in polygamous marriages. According to Doussou Traoré, president of an association of Malian women in New York, “It’s difficult, but one accepts it because it’s our religion.”

According to missionary and author I. Gaskiyane, over three-quarters of the world’s societies permit polygamy, and the largest single group to allow it is Muslim. Indeed, polygamy is mainstream in many twenty-first century Islamic cultures. Even the young Amr Khaled, a Muslim preacher known for bringing Islam to the modern world, refuses to renounce polygamy, though he argues it should be rare.

Admittedly, some Muslim men are thinking through the issue of polygamy, expressing some concern over their (correct) perception that in polygamous relationships women are treated unjustly. Nonetheless, entrenched in a culture and, more importantly, in the Qur’an, they cannot let it go. As one young man put it, “Right now, I’m against the concept of polygamy because it doesn’t serve women justly. Although, who honestly knows, I might practice it in the future.” Though some Muslims may desire to run away from polygamy, they are still tethered by its favorable treatment in their basic text, the Qur’an.

Footnotes: 1 “Protest in Kyrgyzstan Against Legalizing Polygamy,” Agence France Presse, March 23, 2007.

2 Ridarson Galingging, “Restricting or Banning Polygamy, Human Rights Values Must Stand,” The Jakarta Post, January 12, 2007, http://www.thejakartapost.com/Archives/ArchivesDet2.asp?FileID=20070112.E03 (accessed June 8, 2007).

3 Nina Bernstein, “Polygamy, Practiced in Secrecy, Follows Africans to New York,” New York Times, March 23, 2007, http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0814FD3E540C708EDDAA0894DF404482 (accessed June 8, 2007).

4 Ibid. In the United States, prosecution for polygamy is rare, but cases are beginning to work their way through the courts, particularly with regard to Mormonism. For example, see “Utah Woman Charged with Aiding and Abetting Polygamy,” USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-10-14-utah-woman-polygamy_x.htm (accessed January 21, 2008).

5 I. Gaskiyane, Polygamy: A Cultural and Biblical Perspective (Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2000), 7.

6 Samantha M. Shapiro, “Ministering to the Upwardly Mobile Muslim,” New York Times, April 30, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/magazine/30televangelist.html?ex=1182398400&en=252a7101b53671ca&ei=5070 (accessed June 8, 2007).

7 “Polygamy Doesn’t Serve Women,” The Jakarta Post, March 5, 2007, http://www.thejakartapost.com/Archives/ArchivesDet2.asp?FileID=20070305.C04 (accessed June 8, 2007).

article adopted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located one and a half miles east of Rt. 222 on Rt. 40.