Polygamy in British Muslim Community "Rife"

According to this BBC article, polygamy is far more prevalent in Britain than most Muslims over there are willing to admit. Dr. Zabina Shahian, a 40-something GP, was "devastated" after she discovered (through detective work) that her husband still had a wife and three kids in Pakistan. She's now doing her best to help other Brit Muslim women who are dealing with the same issue, though many in the community are not looking kindly upon her efforts.

"When I go down to my parents I get all the neighbours looking at me.

"As a Muslim woman I'm supposed to keep a low profile. I feel like I've committed a crime here although I'm the victim.

"You're supposed to keep your mouth shut and you're supposed to just carry on. It is impregnated into our culture."

Her 54-year-old husband, former conservative party politician Pervez Choudhry, claimed that he had no clue his Pakistani marriage would be valid in England. It's doubtful that an educated man would have no idea that if you don't divorce your spouse you are still legally bound to that person regardless of where you wind up living.

Though most women don't have the means to do anything about a suspected bigamist husband, Shahian did. She hired a detective and spent two years and a bundle of money to track down information on Choudhry's second family. They discovered that his first wife was the result of an "arranged" marriage in 1986.

Her case against Choudhry, however, is not the norm, since polygamy in the UK usually goes unpunished.

This is because they are able to avoid having their second or third marriages registered in the UK by having a Nikah ceremony instead - an Islamic non-registered marriage contract not recognised under British law.

For a Nikah wedding to be recognised in the UK, the marriage needs to have an accompanying civil ceremony.

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, director of think tank The Muslim Institute, said men could exploit the "cruel loophole" of the Nikah, allowing them to have more than one wife under Islamic law but not having to register the marriage in the UK, which means the woman would have no spousal rights if the marriage were to fail.

"They dump their first wife and simply go to Pakistan, Bangladesh or wherever and marry again," he said.

Leading family solicitor Annemarie Hutchinson, who represents Muslim women, said no official statistics were available but that Dr Shahian joined thousands of Muslim women in the UK who were victims of polygamous marriages.

"There are lots and lots of second marriages and second wives - it's rife."

But in cases where prosecution would be possible, she said there would be no case "unless the first or second wife pushes for it".

"It's bigamy but the police won't prosecute because there would be thousands of cases," she said.

Siddiqui says that polygamy

"...is so widely spread they don't blame men having a second wife or a third or fourth wife. They accept this is their lot."

It's hard to believe that it's so prevalent in a Western, non-Muslim country- then again, we are talking about Britain that does allow Shariah law.

Educated Muslim Women In the UK Considering Polygamy

Polygamy is still legal in mainly Arab, Middle Eastern, African and southern Asian countries. Although mostly Muslim, there are a few Christian-majority lands where the practice is permitted, like Zambia, Congo and Uganda. And even in Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) polygamy is legal, though frowned upon by most.  Then you have Sri Lanka, Singapore and India all of which allow polygamous unions for their Muslim citizens only. And though it is illegal in most western countries, Australia and the United Kingdom. permit polygamous marriages as long as they were performed  in a country where it's allowed.

I was actually surprised about Australia, but not so much the U.K.  After all, British Muslims are increasingly turning to Sharia law to settle various matters, and many (not just extremists) are aiming for England to be ruled by Muslims. 

Since having up to four wives is allowed per the Quran, and a good man is hard to find, some Brit Muslim women are  looking to enter into polygamous unions because they'd obviously rather share a man than remain single.  These educated women want to remain in the workforce rather than become the child-bearing maid that many Muslim men expect to marry.

Mizan Raja, 35, who organizes Muslim marriages around the world, told [snip] The Sunday Times, that he has received hundreds of calls in the past six months from women asking about becoming second wives.

“The demand for these relationships is led by the women, not the men. In one generation women have become educated, entrepreneurial and professional.

“The Muslim community is struggling with this, how do you cope with women who wear trousers?” he said.

He added that many Muslim men just wanted a “homemaker”, to come home to a clean house and a plate of food on the table.

Another major problem is that eligible Muslim women far outnumber eligible men in the U.K. Maybe that's because they go to their homeland to find a nice, compliant, dutiful Muslim wife to bring back to England to cook and clean for them, and have their many babies. Or perhaps it's the fact that Muslim men are allowed to marry non-Muslim women, as long as they belong to one of the Abrahamic faiths, whereas Muslim women have to get their beaus to convert to Islam before they can marry. And they say women are equal in Islam. Right.

I honestly cannot fathom how an educated woman would choose to live in a polygamous relationship, then again, I'm not Muslim.