Shatil - Israel May 24, 2011
Polygamy causes suffering among women, study finds
Arab women in Israel who are in polygamous marriages live in a state of poverty, neglect and anxiety.
Polygamy disrupts women’s and children’s lives and condemns them to a life of poverty, loneliness and depression.
These are the conclusions of a qualitative study conducted recently among Bedouin women in the Negev by SHATIL and Ma’an, the Forum for Arab Women’s Organizations in the Negev.
The study’s purpose was to examine the experiences of women living in polygamous marriages and to look at how polygamy affects their lives. In in-depth interviews with nine women, the researchers found that:
• the women fear divorce.
• they experience a serious deterioration in their economic situation once their husband marries an additional wife.
• the “left behind wife” loses her social benefits as the state does not recognize more than one wife.
• they suffer physical and emotional abuse after the additional marriage.
• there is a cycle of lack of education.
• all express anti-polygamy stands.
One of those surveyed tried to commit suicide after being beaten and humiliated by her husband. She said: “Everything I do is for my children. I cannot divorce and remarry because then I would lose my (eight) children.” (In Bedouin society, the children of divorce stay with the father and the mother may be forbidden from seeing them.)
R. 26, a mother of six who married at 14 and was forced by her husband’s family to leave school, said: “My husband’s third wife is now building a new home with my husband. I live in their basement. When I first came there, there was no electricity, water, windows or bathrooms. Today there are windows, but still no door.”
Z, whose father has three wives, sees the lack of justice that may arise from polygamy.
“My father has a son from his third wife and a daughter from my mother. Both are eight and are in the same class. My father pays for the class trips of his son but not of his daughter…Before we went to court, he would take our government child allowance…”
P, aged 38, echoed other women in polygamous marriages when she said: “I’m against polygamy, because it’s hard on the (first) wife and the children. Always, as a result of polygamy, one of the wives is neglected. This is hard on the mother and on the children because they need the father, they need their father’s voice, they need their fathers’ talk…sometimes they get out of control because of this.”
The findings strengthen academic studies of polygamy and enrich it with personal complexity. [see related articles links below]
The study was conducted by Hind Elsana, the lobbyist for SHATIL’s Bedouin Women’s Rights and Leadership Project, funded through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) as well as a Ma’an attorney and a SHATIL Everett Social Justice Fellow, Tamar Seter. The study’s conclusions were presented Tuesday at a conference at Ben Gurion University as well as at Ma’an’s 10th anniversary conference.
The study followed an intensive anti-polygamy media campaign by a coalition of Israeli Arab women’s organizations.
Ma’an has launched a project to raise awareness in the Bedouin community about the problems caused by polygamous marriages. A position paper prepared by Elsana will soon be presented to the Knesset.
This article was found at:
'Over 30 and single? Try polygamy'
Local Bedouin newspaper sparks calls on single Bedouin women who are over 30 to consider polygamous marriages, saying 'it's the Sharia solution'
by Ilana Curiel
Have a wife, or maybe a few: New ads have been popping up in local Bedouin newspapers throughout the Negev recently. The ads suggest that Bedouin women who are in their thirties and single try polygamous marriage as a solution to their "problem."
As polygamy is illegal in Israel, the people behind the ad campaign refuse to reveal their identities, but sign the ad as The Negev Committee for Women's Rights.
Even though polygamy is illegal and anyone marrying more than one woman is in danger of being arrested, the fact is that the law is hardly ever enforced. An ad featured in Rahat's Al Haddat newspaper states that the purpose of the campaign is to help women who have passed the 30-year mark and are having trouble finding a groom.
The ad also stated that according to Islamic law, marrying a second and even a third wife is an extremely effective solution for single women in their thirties.
The ad shows a 34-year-old Bedouin woman who tells of how she feels that her "future is bleak" because all of her friends are already married and she doesn't know if she will ever be able to experience motherhood. The question "What is the solution for 7,514 women in the Negev who are over 30 and still single?" was spread underneath her picture with an answer already included: "polygamy, the Sharia solution".
The ad's initiators shared an important stipulation – polygamy was allowed if a man can treat each wife equally. Those who cannot should not marry more than one woman. In addition to polygamy being illegal in Israel, the ad campaign itself is illegal because it encourages illegal activities. Various sources within the Bedouin community claim that the phenomenon has seen a worrying increase in recent years.
'Oppressing practice'
Attorney Rawia Aburabia of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), who frequently lectures about the status of Bedouin women, in a forum on co-existence in the Negev stated that there was a 30%-40% rise in the number of polygamous marriages.
"Polygamy is a practice that oppresses everybody – women, children and men." According to Aburabia, the ad campaign comes as "a response to a major campaign against Polygamy which is being carried out by a number of equality and civil rights organizations."
The ad includes an email, but publisher remains anonymous
Polygamy also causes negative social trends within the Bedouin community. Among other things, mean who marry more than one woman 'import' women from Gaza and the West Bank so that the act is, when all is said and done – human trafficking. Polygamous marriages incur additional felonies, such as fictive divorces and national insurance fraud.
A central problem which the authorities deal with in efforts to enforce the law, is the fact that it is incredibly difficult to prove that any crime has been committed.
Meanwhile, it is unclear exactly who is behind the ad campaign, and all attempts to contact its initiators have failed. The ad includes a contact email but so far, Ynet has received no response. The editor of the newspaper in which the ad appeared said that the publishers wished to remain anonymous.
Police waiting for instructions
The southern region's prosecution said that they were well aware of the problem and noted: "This isn't a singular case; this is a social trend, which needs to be dealt with in a systematic and comprehensive manner.
"Over the last few months' discussions attended by officials including the southern region civil prosecutor, the southern region criminal prosecutor, additional representatives from the state prosecution, police representatives and other government officials were held for that purpose."
Referring to the polygamy trend the southern region police department stated that: "A Justice Ministry committee is discussing forming directives for law enforcement methods, the police will operate in accordance with the directives it receives."
Hassan Shaalan contributed to this report
This article was found at:
These are the conclusions of a qualitative study conducted recently among Bedouin women in the Negev by SHATIL and Ma’an, the Forum for Arab Women’s Organizations in the Negev.
The study’s purpose was to examine the experiences of women living in polygamous marriages and to look at how polygamy affects their lives. In in-depth interviews with nine women, the researchers found that:
• the women fear divorce.
• they experience a serious deterioration in their economic situation once their husband marries an additional wife.
• the “left behind wife” loses her social benefits as the state does not recognize more than one wife.
• they suffer physical and emotional abuse after the additional marriage.
• there is a cycle of lack of education.
• all express anti-polygamy stands.
One of those surveyed tried to commit suicide after being beaten and humiliated by her husband. She said: “Everything I do is for my children. I cannot divorce and remarry because then I would lose my (eight) children.” (In Bedouin society, the children of divorce stay with the father and the mother may be forbidden from seeing them.)
R. 26, a mother of six who married at 14 and was forced by her husband’s family to leave school, said: “My husband’s third wife is now building a new home with my husband. I live in their basement. When I first came there, there was no electricity, water, windows or bathrooms. Today there are windows, but still no door.”
Z, whose father has three wives, sees the lack of justice that may arise from polygamy.
“My father has a son from his third wife and a daughter from my mother. Both are eight and are in the same class. My father pays for the class trips of his son but not of his daughter…Before we went to court, he would take our government child allowance…”
P, aged 38, echoed other women in polygamous marriages when she said: “I’m against polygamy, because it’s hard on the (first) wife and the children. Always, as a result of polygamy, one of the wives is neglected. This is hard on the mother and on the children because they need the father, they need their father’s voice, they need their fathers’ talk…sometimes they get out of control because of this.”
The findings strengthen academic studies of polygamy and enrich it with personal complexity. [see related articles links below]
The study was conducted by Hind Elsana, the lobbyist for SHATIL’s Bedouin Women’s Rights and Leadership Project, funded through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) as well as a Ma’an attorney and a SHATIL Everett Social Justice Fellow, Tamar Seter. The study’s conclusions were presented Tuesday at a conference at Ben Gurion University as well as at Ma’an’s 10th anniversary conference.
The study followed an intensive anti-polygamy media campaign by a coalition of Israeli Arab women’s organizations.
Ma’an has launched a project to raise awareness in the Bedouin community about the problems caused by polygamous marriages. A position paper prepared by Elsana will soon be presented to the Knesset.
This article was found at:
**********************************************************************
Israeli anti-polygamy activists run into Islamic opposition
Negev clerics and politicians infuriated by women's campaign to stop polygamous marriages among Israeli Beduin.
By DAVID E. MILLER / THE MEDIA LINE
A women’s group campaigning to stop polygamous marriages among Israeli Beduin is running into strong resistance from Islamic groups and even some politicians.
The organizers of the "No Excuse for Polygamy" campaign, launched at the end of November, have been called infidels in newspaper editorials and accused of serving the Zionist agenda by limiting the Arab birth rate. Last Friday’s sermon in a mosque in the Beduin town of Rahat war
Even heads of Negev regional councils representing Beduin towns have publicly denounced the anti-polygamy campaign.
Safa Shehadeh, director of Ma'an – the Forum for Arab Beduin Women's Organizations of the Negev, one of the groups behind the anti-polygamy campaign, said she expected traditionalists to push back. But the reaction has been more aggressive than she had expected.
"There were no personal threats against us," Shehadeh told The Media Line, "but some of the articles published by members of the Islamic Movement and municipal leaders included tacit threats."
In Islam, a man may marry up to four wives on condition that he provides for them equally. But in most Arab societies the phenomenon is frowned upon and in Israel polygamy is illegal, punishable by up to five years in prison. Nevertheless, the custom is deeply rooted in the culture of the Beduin Arabs who traditionally were tent-dwelling nomads but who have gradually been settled in permanent towns like Rahat.
Husbands will have their polygamous marriages sanctified religiously but not in the government marriage registrar. Indeed, many second, third and fourth wives are officially listed as single parents, entitling them to allowances.
Since polygamous marriages aren’t recognized by the government, no official statistics exist. But the Research and Information Center of Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, estimates that somewhere between 20% and 36% of Beduin households in the southern Negev region, where most of Beduin live, are polygamous.
The Working Group for Equality in Personal Status Issues (WGEPSI), which organized the campaign against multiple marriages, believes the number is at the high end of that range. It blames a lack of education and an undeclared Israeli policy of legal non-intervention as the main causes.
Primarily a media campaign using posters with women's testimonials, the "No Excuse for Polygamy" initiative also holds meetings and seminars aimed at educating single women about the price of polygamy. The campaign defending polygamy has been more visceral.
A menacing red and black advertisement published in Al-Hadath, a newspaper published in Rahat, urged women who had failed to get married by age 30 to find a husband to share.
"What is the solution for 7,513 unmarried women in the Negev over the age of 30?" the advertisement rhetorically asked. "Polygamy -- a shariah-sanctioned solution!" it said, answering its own question by defending the practice as approved under Islamic law.
Heba Yazbak, WGEPSI's activities coordinator, said she was heartened by the counter-measures. "This proves that our campaign has really destabilized them," she told The Media Line. "Many men in the southern branch of the Islamic Movement are married to more than one woman, so they have a personal stake in this."
Yazbak noted that the counter-campaign calls itself the Committee for Women's Equality in the Negev, a name similar to her own organization. It also copied the logo and poster design of the original anti-polygamy campaign. "It seems that our campaign threatens everyone," she said.
Sheikh Hammad Abu-Da'abes, head of the Islamic Movement's southern branch, said the women's movements had no answer to the growing problem of spinsterhood in a fast-urbanizing Beduin society.
Some 200,000 Beduin live in Israel, mostly in the Negev desert. With an annual growth rate of 5.5%, Israeli Beduins are one of the fastest growing populations in the world.
"Women are the greatest beneficiaries of polygamy," Abu-Da'abes told the Israeli-Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab. "Spinsterhood has reached 25% in Arab society, and when we fight polygamy we shut the door in the face of many women who wish to marry half a man due to their inability to marry a full man."
For that reason, Abu-Da'abes criticized Arab men who take foreign women in addition to their Arab wives, saying he would like to issue an Islamic legal opinion, known as a fatwa, against mixed marriages.
Yazbak dismissed Abu-Da'abes’ argument, saying polygamy causes poverty and dissolves the family structure. She asserted that Israel’s policy of non-intervention was part of a larger strategy to keep Arab society in Israel impoverished.
"Israeli law is not applied in the Negev," she said. "This is a marginalized and neglected part of the country."
Shehadeh of Ma'an said the opposition to the women’s campaign won’t sway her from fighting polygamy.
"They tried to question our legitimacy, our credibility and our patriotism, but this is a human rights issue,” she said. “We don't even go into the religious question of whether it's permissible or not."
This article was found at:
Jerusalem Post - Israel December 23, 2010
Israeli anti-polygamy activists run into Islamic opposition
Negev clerics and politicians infuriated by women's campaign to stop polygamous marriages among Israeli Beduin.
By DAVID E. MILLER / THE MEDIA LINE
A women’s group campaigning to stop polygamous marriages among Israeli Beduin is running into strong resistance from Islamic groups and even some politicians.
The organizers of the "No Excuse for Polygamy" campaign, launched at the end of November, have been called infidels in newspaper editorials and accused of serving the Zionist agenda by limiting the Arab birth rate. Last Friday’s sermon in a mosque in the Beduin town of Rahat war
Even heads of Negev regional councils representing Beduin towns have publicly denounced the anti-polygamy campaign.
Safa Shehadeh, director of Ma'an – the Forum for Arab Beduin Women's Organizations of the Negev, one of the groups behind the anti-polygamy campaign, said she expected traditionalists to push back. But the reaction has been more aggressive than she had expected.
"There were no personal threats against us," Shehadeh told The Media Line, "but some of the articles published by members of the Islamic Movement and municipal leaders included tacit threats."
In Islam, a man may marry up to four wives on condition that he provides for them equally. But in most Arab societies the phenomenon is frowned upon and in Israel polygamy is illegal, punishable by up to five years in prison. Nevertheless, the custom is deeply rooted in the culture of the Beduin Arabs who traditionally were tent-dwelling nomads but who have gradually been settled in permanent towns like Rahat.
Husbands will have their polygamous marriages sanctified religiously but not in the government marriage registrar. Indeed, many second, third and fourth wives are officially listed as single parents, entitling them to allowances.
Since polygamous marriages aren’t recognized by the government, no official statistics exist. But the Research and Information Center of Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, estimates that somewhere between 20% and 36% of Beduin households in the southern Negev region, where most of Beduin live, are polygamous.
The Working Group for Equality in Personal Status Issues (WGEPSI), which organized the campaign against multiple marriages, believes the number is at the high end of that range. It blames a lack of education and an undeclared Israeli policy of legal non-intervention as the main causes.
Primarily a media campaign using posters with women's testimonials, the "No Excuse for Polygamy" initiative also holds meetings and seminars aimed at educating single women about the price of polygamy. The campaign defending polygamy has been more visceral.
A menacing red and black advertisement published in Al-Hadath, a newspaper published in Rahat, urged women who had failed to get married by age 30 to find a husband to share.
"What is the solution for 7,513 unmarried women in the Negev over the age of 30?" the advertisement rhetorically asked. "Polygamy -- a shariah-sanctioned solution!" it said, answering its own question by defending the practice as approved under Islamic law.
Heba Yazbak, WGEPSI's activities coordinator, said she was heartened by the counter-measures. "This proves that our campaign has really destabilized them," she told The Media Line. "Many men in the southern branch of the Islamic Movement are married to more than one woman, so they have a personal stake in this."
Yazbak noted that the counter-campaign calls itself the Committee for Women's Equality in the Negev, a name similar to her own organization. It also copied the logo and poster design of the original anti-polygamy campaign. "It seems that our campaign threatens everyone," she said.
Sheikh Hammad Abu-Da'abes, head of the Islamic Movement's southern branch, said the women's movements had no answer to the growing problem of spinsterhood in a fast-urbanizing Beduin society.
Some 200,000 Beduin live in Israel, mostly in the Negev desert. With an annual growth rate of 5.5%, Israeli Beduins are one of the fastest growing populations in the world.
"Women are the greatest beneficiaries of polygamy," Abu-Da'abes told the Israeli-Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab. "Spinsterhood has reached 25% in Arab society, and when we fight polygamy we shut the door in the face of many women who wish to marry half a man due to their inability to marry a full man."
For that reason, Abu-Da'abes criticized Arab men who take foreign women in addition to their Arab wives, saying he would like to issue an Islamic legal opinion, known as a fatwa, against mixed marriages.
Yazbak dismissed Abu-Da'abes’ argument, saying polygamy causes poverty and dissolves the family structure. She asserted that Israel’s policy of non-intervention was part of a larger strategy to keep Arab society in Israel impoverished.
"Israeli law is not applied in the Negev," she said. "This is a marginalized and neglected part of the country."
Shehadeh of Ma'an said the opposition to the women’s campaign won’t sway her from fighting polygamy.
"They tried to question our legitimacy, our credibility and our patriotism, but this is a human rights issue,” she said. “We don't even go into the religious question of whether it's permissible or not."
This article was found at:
**************************************************************************
YNet News - Israel December 21, 2010
YNet News - Israel December 21, 2010
'Over 30 and single? Try polygamy'
Local Bedouin newspaper sparks calls on single Bedouin women who are over 30 to consider polygamous marriages, saying 'it's the Sharia solution'
by Ilana Curiel
Have a wife, or maybe a few: New ads have been popping up in local Bedouin newspapers throughout the Negev recently. The ads suggest that Bedouin women who are in their thirties and single try polygamous marriage as a solution to their "problem."
As polygamy is illegal in Israel, the people behind the ad campaign refuse to reveal their identities, but sign the ad as The Negev Committee for Women's Rights.
Even though polygamy is illegal and anyone marrying more than one woman is in danger of being arrested, the fact is that the law is hardly ever enforced. An ad featured in Rahat's Al Haddat newspaper states that the purpose of the campaign is to help women who have passed the 30-year mark and are having trouble finding a groom.
The ad also stated that according to Islamic law, marrying a second and even a third wife is an extremely effective solution for single women in their thirties.
The ad shows a 34-year-old Bedouin woman who tells of how she feels that her "future is bleak" because all of her friends are already married and she doesn't know if she will ever be able to experience motherhood. The question "What is the solution for 7,514 women in the Negev who are over 30 and still single?" was spread underneath her picture with an answer already included: "polygamy, the Sharia solution".
The ad's initiators shared an important stipulation – polygamy was allowed if a man can treat each wife equally. Those who cannot should not marry more than one woman. In addition to polygamy being illegal in Israel, the ad campaign itself is illegal because it encourages illegal activities. Various sources within the Bedouin community claim that the phenomenon has seen a worrying increase in recent years.
'Oppressing practice'
Attorney Rawia Aburabia of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), who frequently lectures about the status of Bedouin women, in a forum on co-existence in the Negev stated that there was a 30%-40% rise in the number of polygamous marriages.
"Polygamy is a practice that oppresses everybody – women, children and men." According to Aburabia, the ad campaign comes as "a response to a major campaign against Polygamy which is being carried out by a number of equality and civil rights organizations."
The ad includes an email, but publisher remains anonymous
Polygamy also causes negative social trends within the Bedouin community. Among other things, mean who marry more than one woman 'import' women from Gaza and the West Bank so that the act is, when all is said and done – human trafficking. Polygamous marriages incur additional felonies, such as fictive divorces and national insurance fraud.
A central problem which the authorities deal with in efforts to enforce the law, is the fact that it is incredibly difficult to prove that any crime has been committed.
Meanwhile, it is unclear exactly who is behind the ad campaign, and all attempts to contact its initiators have failed. The ad includes a contact email but so far, Ynet has received no response. The editor of the newspaper in which the ad appeared said that the publishers wished to remain anonymous.
Police waiting for instructions
The southern region's prosecution said that they were well aware of the problem and noted: "This isn't a singular case; this is a social trend, which needs to be dealt with in a systematic and comprehensive manner.
"Over the last few months' discussions attended by officials including the southern region civil prosecutor, the southern region criminal prosecutor, additional representatives from the state prosecution, police representatives and other government officials were held for that purpose."
Referring to the polygamy trend the southern region police department stated that: "A Justice Ministry committee is discussing forming directives for law enforcement methods, the police will operate in accordance with the directives it receives."
Hassan Shaalan contributed to this report
This article was found at:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4002462,00.html
by Yael Branovsky
"The day I was married I knew I would divorce. I didn't really understand what it meant to be married and mother, but I knew I do not want to be married. I wanted to be a normal teenage girl. Go to school and chat with my friends. But 25 years ago the decision was not mine. I was forced to marry a guy I barely knew. Love was definitely not in the air."
While many Arab and Bedouin women are marrying and having children in Israel every year, their peers are still in high school and preparing for enlistment in the army.
According to the 1950 Marriage Age Law, minors are permitted to marry at age 17. Although marriage prior to this age constitutes a crime, (assuming there are no mitigating circumstances, like pregnancy or birth). The law was legislated in 1950 and is considered progressive for its time, but in most European countries, in the US and even in Iraq, the legal marriage age is 18. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2008 there were 636 brides aged 16 and under (most were married between 2005 and 2007 and registered late with the Interior Ministry). Brides aged 17 numbered 1.455 and bridges aged 18 reached 2,519.
Hanna, who is now 41 years old, was married when she was 16. Today she recalls the mistake she made then. "My parents immigrated to Israel from Georgia, where it is customary to marry girls at a very young age. My father passed away and my mother was left alone with young children, so for her it was a relief to have me married at a young age. I met my husband through the arrangement and didn't really understand what I was getting into. Facts were created for me."
Hanna quickly became pregnant and decided to stay with her husband until the kids grew up. "From the start I knew this was not the person I want to grow old with, but I did want my children to grow up with a father figure." She left high school and did not study for many years, despite her ambitions. "I didn't go into the army and didn't experience a normal teenage upbringing. Only once my children had grown up did I complete my studies and even went on to so a master's degree but I know I missed out on the formative years of my life."
'The girls had no idea what they were getting into'
According to a position paper prepared by the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women's Status, the number of Muslim girls that are married is double that of Jewish girls. At ages 16-17 the gap is four times as big. Most girls under age 16 who are married in Israel are Muslim. In 2006, 150 Muslim girls married before reaching their 16th birthday. For the sake of comparison, in that same year, six Jewish girls married at that age and 10 from other religious backgrounds. There are also Palestinian girls younger than 16 who are "imported" for the purpose of marriage. In 2007, 32 girls were "imported" for this purpose and married to Israeli men. In 2008 1,665 girls aged 14-18 gave birth in Israel, 77% of which were Muslim.
The authority that authorizes marriage below the legal age is the family courts. Among Muslims, the Sharia courts issue marriage authorizations retroactively and are supposed to report it to the police as required. However the reality is quite different.
Talking to Ynet, Rackman Center's chairperson, Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, said that the law in Israel is not enforced. Thus, for example, in 2007, 166 women under 16 years of age were married. Only 20 requests were submitted to the courts and only two cases were filed with the police and ultimately closed due to lack of public interest.
A., a young Beduoin woman from northern Israel, is currently completing her bachelor's degree in law. Both her brothers, aged 21 and 32, obtained a higher education abroad. "Despite the fact that my parents are not educated, they made sure we did get an education. I considered my family to be modern and progressive and that's why I was surprised when two years ago, both my brothers married cousins of ours who were only 16 years old. My parents did not object, as they wanted my brothers to be married. I tried explaining to my brothers that these girls were too young and not ready for marriage, but they did not listen."
According to A., "My older brother said he wanted to be with someone who has not yet seen the world, so he could educate her and mold her as he saw fit. I also spoke with the mother of these girls, who herself married at a young age and likes to tell the story of how, when she was that age, she would wait for her husband to arrive to give her money to go buy candies. I believe these girls did not understand what they were getting themselves into and a lot of pressure was exerted on them."
Warda ElKranawi, the coordinator of SHATIL's Bedouin Women's Leadership Project coordinator in Beer Sheva, says that unfortunately, in recent years the subject has actually received less attention. "Men prefer to marry very young women who have no experience. This is evident even among the educated. Beyond the damage this causes women, who are not mature or knowledgeable enough to run a household, it is also a serious blow to our society. A child who does not receive proper support and education at home will not grow up to become a responsible citizen, and our society continues to go in this problematic direction."
The girls themselves, explains ElKranawi, are willingly marrying at such a young age: "Girls only 15 years old dream of getting married, because they understand it to be the way to independence. After all, if you are 20 or older, you may be married as a second wife. Even if a woman has obtained an education, she will not be independent. Her parents will continue to make decisions for her."
Deputy Minster Gila Gamliel is working on changing the legislation by raising the marriage age to 18 and toughening the conditions for receiving special authorization and increasing regulation: "Even when the marriage is not consecrated under coercion, it is difficult to say that it was done consensually since the girls are so young. It leads to immature motherhood, ignorance and the perpetuation of poverty. High percentages of the girls suffer from physical violence, economic exploitation and emotional abuse. Their lives are in the hands of their families and their husbands."
The entities dealing with this issue are not sure that raising the legal age will necessarily help the situation. "I don't know how much it can help since, in Israel, people get married through religious institutions. The social reforms must go much deeper," says SHATIL's ElKranawi.
Circumventing the law
Tatiana, 25, who married at age 15 and a half and is mother to four children, believes changes to the law will not actually bring about change: "I was ready and in love and for people like me I don't think it will make a difference. Even if they change the legal marriage age to 30, people will simply live together."
Despite losing out on an education, she has no regrets. "We were young and very in love, and I knew I wanted to marry him. My mother raised me by herself and from a very young age I learned to manage on my own, cook and clean. I tried convincing my husband to wait till I was 18 to get married, but he did not want to hear it. At 17 I already became a mother and a year later I had another child. I quit my studies and never worked. Now, with my children grown up, I want to study and have a profession, because I feel that I was left behind. My children no longer need me like they used to and I am currently looking to register for courses."
Hanna is also doubtful the new legislation will have any effect: "I do not believe the law will change anything. There are communities in Israel that are completely isolated, who will always find a way. I know a family that decided to marry their daughter at age 14. The community rabbi gave his blessings and only after she became pregnant, did the court issue an authorization. I believe that in other closed communities like it, people will find ways to circumvent the law. There are certain cultures in which this is so firmly ingrained that no law will help."
Professor Halperin-Kaddari strongly believes that the state must raise the legal marriage age: "We must align ourselves with international norms. Early marriage generally lead to early motherhood and international studies have shown that as a result, women suspend their education and their socioeconomic status remains low. Studies have also proven a strong connection between early marriage physical violence. This usually occurs in closed communities and we as a state must protect our children."
This article was found at:
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Prosecuting Polygamy in El Dorado by Marci Hamilton
Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearings on Polygamy Crimes: What Needs to Be Done at the Federal Level to Protect Children from Abuse and Neglect
Senate hearing: "Crimes Associated with Polygamy: The Need for a Coordinated State and Federal Response."
Texas Will Attempt to Show That Polygamist Culture Itself Harms Children
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YNet News - Israel September 26, 2010
Barely 16 and married
Thousands of adolescent girls are married in Israel every year, decisive majority of them Arabs and Bedouins. Legal marriage age is 17, may increase to 18 due to new legislative initiative
Barely 16 and married
Thousands of adolescent girls are married in Israel every year, decisive majority of them Arabs and Bedouins. Legal marriage age is 17, may increase to 18 due to new legislative initiative
by Yael Branovsky
"The day I was married I knew I would divorce. I didn't really understand what it meant to be married and mother, but I knew I do not want to be married. I wanted to be a normal teenage girl. Go to school and chat with my friends. But 25 years ago the decision was not mine. I was forced to marry a guy I barely knew. Love was definitely not in the air."
While many Arab and Bedouin women are marrying and having children in Israel every year, their peers are still in high school and preparing for enlistment in the army.
According to the 1950 Marriage Age Law, minors are permitted to marry at age 17. Although marriage prior to this age constitutes a crime, (assuming there are no mitigating circumstances, like pregnancy or birth). The law was legislated in 1950 and is considered progressive for its time, but in most European countries, in the US and even in Iraq, the legal marriage age is 18. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2008 there were 636 brides aged 16 and under (most were married between 2005 and 2007 and registered late with the Interior Ministry). Brides aged 17 numbered 1.455 and bridges aged 18 reached 2,519.
Hanna, who is now 41 years old, was married when she was 16. Today she recalls the mistake she made then. "My parents immigrated to Israel from Georgia, where it is customary to marry girls at a very young age. My father passed away and my mother was left alone with young children, so for her it was a relief to have me married at a young age. I met my husband through the arrangement and didn't really understand what I was getting into. Facts were created for me."
Hanna quickly became pregnant and decided to stay with her husband until the kids grew up. "From the start I knew this was not the person I want to grow old with, but I did want my children to grow up with a father figure." She left high school and did not study for many years, despite her ambitions. "I didn't go into the army and didn't experience a normal teenage upbringing. Only once my children had grown up did I complete my studies and even went on to so a master's degree but I know I missed out on the formative years of my life."
'The girls had no idea what they were getting into'
According to a position paper prepared by the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women's Status, the number of Muslim girls that are married is double that of Jewish girls. At ages 16-17 the gap is four times as big. Most girls under age 16 who are married in Israel are Muslim. In 2006, 150 Muslim girls married before reaching their 16th birthday. For the sake of comparison, in that same year, six Jewish girls married at that age and 10 from other religious backgrounds. There are also Palestinian girls younger than 16 who are "imported" for the purpose of marriage. In 2007, 32 girls were "imported" for this purpose and married to Israeli men. In 2008 1,665 girls aged 14-18 gave birth in Israel, 77% of which were Muslim.
The authority that authorizes marriage below the legal age is the family courts. Among Muslims, the Sharia courts issue marriage authorizations retroactively and are supposed to report it to the police as required. However the reality is quite different.
Talking to Ynet, Rackman Center's chairperson, Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, said that the law in Israel is not enforced. Thus, for example, in 2007, 166 women under 16 years of age were married. Only 20 requests were submitted to the courts and only two cases were filed with the police and ultimately closed due to lack of public interest.
A., a young Beduoin woman from northern Israel, is currently completing her bachelor's degree in law. Both her brothers, aged 21 and 32, obtained a higher education abroad. "Despite the fact that my parents are not educated, they made sure we did get an education. I considered my family to be modern and progressive and that's why I was surprised when two years ago, both my brothers married cousins of ours who were only 16 years old. My parents did not object, as they wanted my brothers to be married. I tried explaining to my brothers that these girls were too young and not ready for marriage, but they did not listen."
According to A., "My older brother said he wanted to be with someone who has not yet seen the world, so he could educate her and mold her as he saw fit. I also spoke with the mother of these girls, who herself married at a young age and likes to tell the story of how, when she was that age, she would wait for her husband to arrive to give her money to go buy candies. I believe these girls did not understand what they were getting themselves into and a lot of pressure was exerted on them."
Warda ElKranawi, the coordinator of SHATIL's Bedouin Women's Leadership Project coordinator in Beer Sheva, says that unfortunately, in recent years the subject has actually received less attention. "Men prefer to marry very young women who have no experience. This is evident even among the educated. Beyond the damage this causes women, who are not mature or knowledgeable enough to run a household, it is also a serious blow to our society. A child who does not receive proper support and education at home will not grow up to become a responsible citizen, and our society continues to go in this problematic direction."
The girls themselves, explains ElKranawi, are willingly marrying at such a young age: "Girls only 15 years old dream of getting married, because they understand it to be the way to independence. After all, if you are 20 or older, you may be married as a second wife. Even if a woman has obtained an education, she will not be independent. Her parents will continue to make decisions for her."
Deputy Minster Gila Gamliel is working on changing the legislation by raising the marriage age to 18 and toughening the conditions for receiving special authorization and increasing regulation: "Even when the marriage is not consecrated under coercion, it is difficult to say that it was done consensually since the girls are so young. It leads to immature motherhood, ignorance and the perpetuation of poverty. High percentages of the girls suffer from physical violence, economic exploitation and emotional abuse. Their lives are in the hands of their families and their husbands."
The entities dealing with this issue are not sure that raising the legal age will necessarily help the situation. "I don't know how much it can help since, in Israel, people get married through religious institutions. The social reforms must go much deeper," says SHATIL's ElKranawi.
Circumventing the law
Tatiana, 25, who married at age 15 and a half and is mother to four children, believes changes to the law will not actually bring about change: "I was ready and in love and for people like me I don't think it will make a difference. Even if they change the legal marriage age to 30, people will simply live together."
Despite losing out on an education, she has no regrets. "We were young and very in love, and I knew I wanted to marry him. My mother raised me by herself and from a very young age I learned to manage on my own, cook and clean. I tried convincing my husband to wait till I was 18 to get married, but he did not want to hear it. At 17 I already became a mother and a year later I had another child. I quit my studies and never worked. Now, with my children grown up, I want to study and have a profession, because I feel that I was left behind. My children no longer need me like they used to and I am currently looking to register for courses."
Hanna is also doubtful the new legislation will have any effect: "I do not believe the law will change anything. There are communities in Israel that are completely isolated, who will always find a way. I know a family that decided to marry their daughter at age 14. The community rabbi gave his blessings and only after she became pregnant, did the court issue an authorization. I believe that in other closed communities like it, people will find ways to circumvent the law. There are certain cultures in which this is so firmly ingrained that no law will help."
Professor Halperin-Kaddari strongly believes that the state must raise the legal marriage age: "We must align ourselves with international norms. Early marriage generally lead to early motherhood and international studies have shown that as a result, women suspend their education and their socioeconomic status remains low. Studies have also proven a strong connection between early marriage physical violence. This usually occurs in closed communities and we as a state must protect our children."
This article was found at:
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Posts
Polygamy just doesn't make sense
ReplyDeleteBY MINDELLE JACOBS, EDMONTON SUN November 4, 2011
There isn’t a shred of evidence that polygamy benefits women. Even the UN, often a laughingstock of blind ideologues, has declared that polygamy violates women’s equality rights.
Still, that hasn’t stopped academics (who should know better) from suggesting that polygamy be decriminalized.
The latest educator to jump on the decriminalization bandwagon is U of A poli-sci professor Lois Harder. In a recent study written for the Vanier Institute of the Family, Harder wonders if women in polygamous families might be better off if polygamy wasn’t a crime.
“Decriminalizing polygamy would not entail expanding the definition of marriage to include polygamous marriages,” she wrote. “Rather, it would provide a firmer foundation from which to protect women and children in polygamous relationships from exploitation.”
Yeah, right. Remove polygamy from the Criminal Code and all those young girls and women who’ve been brainwashed by the men in Bountiful, B.C., and other polygamous communities will shake off the shackles of exploitation and go to university to become doctors, lawyers and, oh, poli-sci profs.
“In contexts in which exploitation is not presumed to be at issue, the question arises as to why polygamy … should not be accorded some legal status,” Harder argues in the paper, After the Nuclear Age, in which she explores recent developments in Canadian family law.
It’s incredibly naive to believe that polygamy can exist without the exploitation of women. The females in these dysfunctional relationships may not think they’re being taken advantage of. They may, in fact, insist they freely chose such a lifestyle.
After all, what woman wouldn’t want to get married in her mid-teens to someone old enough to be her father or grandfather, drop out of school, have a baby every year and share her husband with a bunch of sister-wives?
Isn’t that every woman’s dream?
Proponents of polygamy, or polyamory, describe it as “responsible non-monogamy,” Harder notes. “This phrasing challenges the presumption of promiscuity, immorality and the twinned responses of moral repugnance and titillation that often accompany popular representations of non-monogamous relationships.”
This presumes that women in polygamous relationships, like those in the demented fundamentalist Mormon communes in Canada and the U.S., had any real choice in the matter.
On the contrary, any stirrings of free will are stamped out from the time these females are toddlers.
They are bred solely to satisfy the sexual and narcissistic needs of a bunch of male control-freaks who try to disguise their misogyny as religion.
(The young men in these communes are also victimized, pushed out of the communities so they won’t compete with older men for the brainwashed young women.)
Polygamy is simply incompatible with equality and basic human dignity. It’s soul-destroying and merely feeds the deranged dictates of pathological egotists.
While these fundamentalist Mormon megalomaniacs shun the outside world, they have no problem “bleeding the beast” — or hitting up the government for welfare for all their wives and children.
Harder suggests that recognizing polygamy would help women in these relationships because legal status would confer obligations and entitlements — presumably things like property rights and financial support.
“If Canada was to extend various forms of entitlements and obligations to people as a result of the existence of interdependence, it may well be that people participating in polyamorous relationships would benefit,” she writes.
And pigs will fly.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/11/04/polygamy-just-doesnt-make-sense
A fork in the road from Bountiful
ReplyDeleteScott Stinson, National Post · November 22, 2011
Winston Blackmore and James Oler have outlasted a lot of agitators. Wally Oppal, the former B.C. attorney-general who shopped around until he could find a special prosecutor who agreed to lay criminal charges against the founders of the polygamist community in Bountiful, was beaten in the 2009 election. Gordon Campbell, the premier who presumably gave Mr. Oppal his blessing, is retired. Two more attorneys-general have come and gone in B.C. since Mr. Oppal left office.
The Bountiful leaders re-main, poised now for what could be their biggest win yet, with a ruling expected on Wednesday from the B.C. Supreme Court that could strike down as unconstitutional the section of the Criminal Code that outlaws polygamy.
But while Bountiful, with its images of young women dressed like extras from Little House on the Prairie, drew major attention to polygamy and kicked off the resulting legal odyssey more than five years ago, the B.C. court's ruling, which is likely just a major signpost on the road to the Supreme Court of Canada, is about more than the living conditions of a community of 1,000 in southeastern British Columbia.
It's about whether Canada wants its religious freedoms to be absolute. And, of particular note at a time when the federal government has made considerable hay out of demanding that newcomers to Canada accept "Canadian values," it's about deciding whether a practice that is accepted in many countries will continue to be outlawed here.
Decriminalizing polygamy would seem a baffling move, if only for the plain fact that the federal government raised the age of consent to 16 from 14 in 2008. If Parliament does not believe that a person is capable of granting consent to sexual activity until 16 years of age, then how could it possibly sign off on the marriage of girls in their early teens, even those said to be "consensual"?
But upholding the law is fraught, too: Religion is a Charter right, and those who practise polygamy under the banner of religion are not like those mischief makers who tell censustakers their religion is "Jedi."
No one doubts that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a "real" church, and while the majority of Muslims don't practise polygamy, a small fraction of them do.
"I don't want to say the issue is easy, on the contrary it's very complex and vexing," says Nick Bala, a law professor at Queen's University in Kingston. "There are legitimate questions about freedom of religion, but if you look at the body of evidence there are serious concerns about harm caused to women and children in polygamous relationships. It is an inherently un-equal relationship."
Prof. Bala offers that although the B.C. court heard from people who said they were happy in polygamous marriages and that they weren't coerced into such an arrangement at a young age, he says on balance such marriages have more incidence of abuse than traditional marriages.
"Of course it's not true of every single polygamous family that there's been coercion, but this is about pat-terns of behaviour," he says.
"The fact that someone can drive safe at 150 km/h doesn't mean you can't have a law against it."
But Bev Baines, also a law professor at Queen's and one of the auth-ors of a 2005 study commissioned by the federal government that said the law against polygamy was unconstitutional, says decriminalization is "the only possible solution for women."
Women in polygamous marriages might be in need of help, she argues, but the law as it stands makes criminals out of all parties in such a relation-ship ...
read the rest of the article at:
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/fork+road+from+Bountiful/5747332/story.html
More rape and violence among polygamists: Study
ReplyDeleteERICA BULMAN, QMI AGENCY January 23, 2012 Toronto Sun
VANCOUVER - In cultures that permit men to take multiple wives, the sexual competition between men for the remaining women causes more murder, rape, violence, kidnapping and poverty than in monogamous societies, a new University of British Columbia-led study shows.
“The scarcity of marriageable women in polygamous cultures increases competition among men for the remaining unmarried women,” said UBC’s Joseph Henrich, a cultural anthropologist who served as an expert witness for the B.C. Supreme Court case involving the polygamous community of Bountiful.
That increases the likelihood men will resort to crime to gain resources and women, the study said.
The study suggested institutionalized monogamous marriage is rapidly replacing polygamy because it has lower levels of inherent social problems.
“Our goal was to understand why monogamous marriage has become standard in most developed nations in recent centuries, when most recorded cultures have practiced polygyny,” Henrich said.
The study suggested institutionalized monogamous marriage is replacing polygamy because it has lower levels of inherent social problems.
“Our findings suggest that that institutionalized monogamous marriage provides greater net benefits for society at large by reducing social problems that are inherent in polygynous societies.”
The study was published in Monday’s edition of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/23/more-rape-and-violence-among-polygamists-study
The puzzle of monogamous marriage
ReplyDeleteby Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson
The journal of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
Abstract
The anthropological record indicates that approximately 85 per cent of human societies have permitted men to have more than one wife (polygynous marriage), and both empirical and evolutionary considerations suggest that large absolute differences in wealth should favour more polygynous marriages. Yet, monogamous marriage has spread across Europe, and more recently across the globe, even as absolute wealth differences have expanded. Here, we develop and explore the hypothesis that the norms and institutions that compose the modern package of monogamous marriage have been favoured by cultural evolution because of their group-beneficial effects—promoting success in inter-group competition. In suppressing intrasexual competition and reducing the size of the pool of unmarried men, normative monogamy reduces crime rates, including rape, murder, assault, robbery and fraud, as well as decreasing personal abuses. By assuaging the competition for younger brides, normative monogamy decreases (i) the spousal age gap, (ii) fertility, and (iii) gender inequality. By shifting male efforts from seeking wives to paternal investment, normative monogamy increases savings, child investment and economic productivity. By increasing the relatedness within households, normative monogamy reduces intra-household conflict, leading to lower rates of child neglect, abuse, accidental death and homicide. These predictions are tested using converging lines of evidence from across the human sciences.
Read the full study at:
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1589/657.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=Veh7WiI1F7Thq0E
The Perils of Polygamy
ReplyDeleteby Christopher Kaczor, Public Discourse: Ethics, Law and the Common Good May 21, 2012
Recent empirical research suggests that, in virtually every respect, polygamy is socially detrimental—to society in general, to men, to women, and to children.
In the course of history, approximately 85 percent of societies have practiced polygamy. Pushed by advocates of same-sex marriage and multiculturalism, some scholars, such as the signers of “Beyond Gay Marriage,” argue that it is irrational and bigoted for contemporary society to limit marriage to just two people. However, there is no bigotry in treating different things differently, and there are many important differences between polygamy and monogamy in practice as well as in principle.
There are three main forms of polygamous relationships: polygyny, polyandry, and polygynandry. In polygyny, by far the most common form of polygamy, one man may marry a number of wives. In polyandry, one wife has two or more husbands. This form of polygamy is extremely unusual, and often takes the form of two brothers marrying the same woman. In polygynandry, two or more wives marry to two or more husbands. Polygynandry is even more rare than polyandry, but will be similar in some respects to polygyny, insofar as a man has more than one wife. Since both polygynandry and polyandry are virtually non-existent, I’ll focus on the more common case of one man with multiple wives, and use the more common term polygamy to describe this arrangement.
Now let us turn to the practical considerations drawn from human experience. Recent empirical research suggests that, in virtually every respect, polygamy is socially detrimental—to society in general, to men, to women, and to children. These problems arise because of the nature of human reproduction.
In human reproduction, slightly more male than female babies are born (approximately 105 boys to 100 girls). As boys are more likely to die of natural causes as infants and from violence before they marry and reproduce, ceteris paribus, at any given marriageable age, there will be approximately 50% males and 50% females. Given roughly equal numbers of males and females as found in nature, polygamy and monogamy shape society in radically different ways. In a monogamous society, for each man there is a corresponding woman. William Tucker notes that this gives “every man [and every woman] a reasonable chance to mate.” By contrast, in a polygamous society, some men take multiple wives, but this leaves other men with greatly diminished prospects of marriage or an exclusion from mating altogether. The question under consideration, then, is what social effects does this arrangement bring?
In their 2012 article, “The Puzzle of Monogamous Marriage” appearing in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, and Peter J. Richerson used converging lines of evidence from the social sciences to compare polygamous and monogamous societies. They found that polygamous societies differ from monogamous societies in terms of violent crimes, female educational attainment, domestic violence, parental investment in children, and economic productivity.
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ReplyDeleteA wealth of sociological information points to the fact that single men commit the vast majority of violent crimes. Women and married men seldom murder, rob, rape, and assault in comparison to single men. So, since there are many more single men in polygamous societies, polygamous societies have higher rates of violent crime. As Henrich and colleagues note:
Faced with high levels of intra-sexual competition and little chance of obtaining even one long-term mate, unmarried, low-status men will heavily discount the future and more readily engage in risky status-elevating and sex-seeking behaviors. This will result in higher rates of murder, theft, rape, social disruption, kidnapping (especially of females), sexual slavery and prostitution.
With little reason to invest in the established social order, single males are more likely to turn away from activities conducive to long-term productivity and turn toward the quick thrill, if not a violent overthrow of the established social order. These tendencies are detrimental to society as a whole, including to single men who are the most common victims of theft, violent assault, and murder.
In a polygamous society, the age of marriage will be lower for females than in a monogamous society. With a relative scarcity of possible mates of their own age, men seek wives among women of younger ages. Early marriage in turn leads to much higher rates of reproduction. Rather than delaying marriage and childbearing until their twenties or thirties, women marry and have children as teenagers. In modern social conditions, teen motherhood is detrimental for both these young women and their families. For a female teen, marriage to a much older man makes it unlikely that she will have an equal partnership with her husband and makes the completion of her education difficult, if not impossible. Indeed, marriage at a young age to a much older man is also linked to lethal domestic violence. In the words of one study:
The larger the age gap, the more likely it is that a husband will kill his wife, and vice‐versa (the young wife murders her husband). … This suggests that polygyny is relatively (potentially) much more dangerous than monogamous relations because age gaps of 16 years are not uncommon when accumulating young wives.
The difference in age exacerbates gender differences, and, for men, is more likely to give rise to jealous fears that their young wives will be unfaithful.
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ReplyDeleteThe phenomenon of “co-wives”: (a misnomer since polygamy typically involves a hierarchy among the wives) also undermines the well-being of women. The senior wives worry that they will be replaced by younger wives, and the younger wives in turn worry about the power exerted in the home by senior wives. Research indicates that levels of domestic strife and violence are higher in polygamous homes than in monogamous homes as wives seek to preserve their place with their shared husband as well as struggle to secure resources for their own biological children. As Henrich and colleagues point out:
Co-wife conflict is ubiquitous in polygynous households. From anthropology, a review of ethnographic data from 69 non-sororal polygynous societies from around the globe reveals no case where co-wife relations could be described as harmonious, and no hint that women’s access to the means of production had any mitigating impact on conflict.
These conflicts lead polygamous family units, particularly those with three or more wives, to have in general higher rates of divorce than monogamous couples. In the supplementary materials to their article, Henrich, Boyd, and Richerson point out: “Systematic and controlled analyses from polygynous societies generally show higher divorce rates for polygynous vs. monogamous marriages in the same society. … Relative to monogamous families, polygynous families with more than two wives are five times more likely to divorce.”
As bad as polygamy is for women, it is perhaps even worse for the well-being of children. Because the polygamous wives tend to be younger and less well educated, their children suffer in not having more mature mothers, as would be more typical of their counterparts in a monogamous society. The children suffer also from having multiple stepmothers involved in ongoing struggles with each other. Half-siblings must compete for limited resources while having weaker genetic bonds to mitigate the conflict. While these extended-family relationships could in theory be a source of support, more often they endanger children. Henrich’s study explained:
Much empirical work in monogamous societies indicates that higher degrees of relatedness among household members are associated with lower rates of abuse, neglect and homicide. Living in the same household with genetically unrelated adults is the single biggest risk factor for abuse, neglect and homicide of children. Stepmothers are 2.4 times more likely to kill their stepchildren than birth mothers, and children living with an unrelated parent are between 15 and 77 times more likely to die “accidentally.”
Polygamous families are also more likely than monogamous families to be in poverty, since typically only one breadwinner supports numerous children.
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ReplyDeletePolygamous societies also dilute the investment of fathers in their children in at least two ways. First, because marriage to other young women is still an option, a husband’s resources of time, attention, and money are diverted away from his own children and toward finding new mates. Secondly, in virtue of the greater number of children in the polygamous family, it becomes increasingly difficult to give each child sufficient time and attention. Indeed, some fathers of polygamous families have so many children that they do not even know each child’s name. This dilution of paternal investment is similar in effect to being raised by a single mother with all its attendant risk factors (especially for males) for drug abuse, trouble with the law, and dropping out of school.
A final harm brought on by polygamy is economic. Henrich’s study notes:
When males cannot invest in obtaining more wives (because of imposed monogamy) they invest and save in ways that generate both reduced population growth and more rapid economic expansion (increasing GDP per capita). Thus … the nearly threefold increase in GDP per capita between Comparable Monogamous Countries and Highly Polygynous Countries is partially caused by legally imposed monogamy.
Economic well-being contributes in turn to the stability of families which is a benefit to men, women, and children alike.
Finally, even aside from the sociological data, there is an inherent inequality in polygamous marriage. In monogamous marriage, spouses give themselves as spouses to each other unreservedly, unconditionally, and entirely. Now, giving oneself as a husband or wife to one’s spouse does not exclude giving of oneself in ways that are not distinctly marital to other people (such as playing tennis with a business partner, or going to the movies with a group of friends). Part of the marriage vow is the promise of sexual fidelity, the bodily manifestation of one’s commitment as spouse entirely to the spouse and to the spouse alone.
In a polygamous marriage, the man does not give himself qua husband entirely to his wife. A polygamous husband gives himself qua husband to however many wives he has. Wives, by contrast, are expected to reserve themselves in a sexual way for their husband alone. Moreover, wives face inequality among themselves as “senior wives” enjoy rank above “junior wives.” The polygamous relationship can never attain the mutual and complete self-donation of spouses in monogamous marriage because it is intrinsically impossible to reserve oneself in a sexual way entirely for one person and at the same time reserve oneself in a sexual way entirely for a different person (or persons). Marriage understood as a comprehensive union can exist only between two persons, and never more than two persons. Society, therefore, has good reason not simply to proscribe polygamy, but to endorse monogamy.
Christopher Kaczor is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University and the author of The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice (Routledge 2011).
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/05/5338