A Debate to Legalize Poylgamy in Tunisia

The question of polygamy or polygyny in Islam has always been a source of controversy in the West. Many Western commentators hostile of the faith have used the Qur'anic acceptance of polygamy as "proof" that Islam is an misogynistic faith. In reality, polygamy is not exclusive to Islam - it exists in other faiths and cultures that predate Islam - and the question of is more complex. Polygamy was enshrined in Islam not as a way to please the sexual appetite of men, but, rather, to limit multiply marriages in a society where such limits had previously not existed. Pagan Mecca before Islam was a world where wealthy men often took several wives for purposes of cementing tribal/clan ties.

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The Qur'an commanded Muslims not to marry four, as some would have you believe, but, instead, to not marry more than four. And many Muslims will note Mecca was a world where several women went unmarried in a society that has lost myriad men in warfare.

But the Qur'an did not take polygamy lightly. Polygamy was only acceptable if each additional woman would be treated with equality to the previous wife or wives. The Qur'an:

If you are afraid you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if you shall not be able to deal justly [with them] only one.

Despite false and bigoted stereotypes of Muslims, polygamy was never common in the Muslim world and remained, as in the case of pagan Mecca, a feature mostly exclusive to the ruling elite who would marry several women for purposes of political ties and multiply offspring [just in the case of the, say, Chinese dynasty].

Nonetheless, many Islamophobes have sought to smear Islam and its Prophets as a faith and Prophet that degraded women by allowing multiply marriage. In the anthology of many Western writing, the Prophet Muhammad is often portrayed as a sex-crazed beast because he had several wives. But as British historian Geoffrey Parrinder noted in his Mysticism in the World's Religions this portray cannot survive any honest investigation of history:

No great religious leader has been so maligned as Muhammad. Attacked in the past as a heretic, an imposter, or a sensualist, it is still possible to find him referred to as "the false prophet." A modern German writer accuses Muhammad of sensuality, surrounding himself with young women. This man was not married until he was twenty-five years of age, then he and his wife lived in happiness and fidelity for twenty-four years, until her death when he was forty-nice. Only between the age of fifty and his death at sixty-two did Muhammad take other wives, only one of whom was a virgin, and most of them were taken for dynastic and political reasons. Certainly the Prophet's record was better than that head of the Church of England, Henry VIII.

Islam also had something else to say on polygamy:

You are never able to be fair and just between women even if that is your ardent desire.

This second ayat seems to rule out polygamy. The first ayat states that polygamy is only acceptable if the women are treated equally, but this second ayat says that equality between two or more women in the heart of a man is never possible "even if that is your ardent desire." Most Muslims - including myself - look at the second ayat and conclude that polygamy should be avoided. Most Muslims never consider anyhow, but there is the question of whether is should be legal for those few who so desire.

In 1956, Tunisia became the first and still only Arab country to ban polygamy. Tunisia is only a handful of Muslim nations - Turkey being one of them - to prohibit polygamy. The Tunisian Code of Personal Status, a law crafted by secular, founding President Habib Bourguiba, prohibited polygyny with a punishment of up to six months in jail for violation.

For most of Tunisian history - even during the 1980s period when the nation had a strong Islamists movement - the illegality of polygamy was never strongly challenged. But debate in Tunisia is now taking place as to whether polygamy should be legalized as a mechanism to solve social ills:

Dalanda Sahbi, who made her appeal in a Tuesday (August 11th) seminar on the gains made by Tunisian women, supports polygamy because of what she described as the "rise in the number of unmarried women and in moral degeneration and excessive libertinism that allows extra-marital affairs".

"We have to allow polygamy because we aren’t better off than the rest of the Arab countries," added Sahbi, who is married. "More importantly, Islam allows it and we have a good example in the Prophet Mohammed in this regard." . . .

Sahbi's idea earned her a cold shoulder from many other participants in the seminar, which was organised by the Social Liberal Party to mark National Women's Day (August 13th) and to discuss Tunisian women's progress since the passage of the Code of Personal Status.

"This lone appeal didn’t get any support from seminar participants," said Roda Al Saibi, a member of the party's political bureau. "Instead, it faced strong opposition from many women, who insisted on sticking to the Code of Personal Status, which Tunisian women take pride in."

The idea of polygamy was met with sarcasm by seminar participant Nissrine, who asked if Tunisians were so capable of satisfying one woman that now they were ready to marry a second and a third.

In fact, spinsterhood seemed preferable to Khadija, an unmarried woman in her 50s, who said, "I'd rather be unmarried all my life than be a second wife."

Journalist Mokhtar Tlili, who was present at the seminar, said that polygamy had for all intents and purposes been rejected even before the Code of Personal Status. However, in the context of Tunisia's religious resurgence, the issue was being debated again.

"Women, as usual, are being turned into a tool for a battle that is on the surface religious, but is actually political," Tlili said, adding that many Tunisians "have now become obsessed with [polygamy] for animalistic and instinctive reasons. However, they wouldn't dare to express that in public."

Outside the seminar, opinions on polygamy varied from a warm embrace to outright rejection. . . .

Samira Laouati, a married woman in her 30s, criticised the Code of Personal Status as a manifestation of the wishes of former president Habib Bourguiba, as opposed to those of Tunisian women.

She felt that the law had helped spread moral decrepitude and promote divorce. According to recently released government data, Tunisia saw a record 9,127 divorces in 2008, compared to 16,000 marriages. Among the main causes listed for divorce were domestic violence and differing cultural and social levels; causes reported less often included sterility, disability, premarital loss of virginity, betrayal, lack of confidence and jealousy.

"I hope that the laws banning polygamy in Tunisia will be removed so that we can curb women’s drift towards arrogant libertinism that doesn’t respect the husband or any rules," said Laouati. "I wish polygamy would rein them in."

"I’m not coming up with anything new," added Laouati. "Our religion allows it, and there's no doubt about that."

However, Ahlam Bouchaouel, who is single, questioned polygamy's track record for solving social problems in the Arab world, asking: "Has polygamy in the Gulf countries put an end to moral corruption and spinsterhood?"

Personally, the social problems in Tunisia will not be solved in by polygamy. The United States has a higher divorce rate and polygamy is, of course, outlawed. Polygamy should remain illegal.