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Date: 05/10/2005

Should Polygamy be on the Liberation War Manifesto?

Polygamy is the tradition that allows a married man to marry more than one wife. It is an opposite of polyandry, in which a married woman can marry more than one husband. Polyandry rarely is practiced by neither people of beliefs nor secular people. Conversely, Polygamy is performed widely by many people worldwide. However, it was considered one of controversial issue among the people in the glob.

Historiographers claimed that a polygamy issue is main reason that founded the ongoing chasm and violence between Israel and Arab people in the Middle East. It was stated that the story of Sarah and Abraham engendered the ongoing conflict. Historiographers narrated that Sarah proposed to Abraham to marry Hagar, Sarah Egyptian maid, in order to produce children for him. This is because Sarah did not produce any children until she transcended her childbearing age. Once Hagar became pregnant, she started to abominate Sarah. After Hagar bore Ishmael, the forefather of the Arab people, the antagonism exacerbated between Sarah and Hagar. As a result; Ishmael and Hagar were relegated. This labeled the beginning of dissention between Arab and Israeli people and ignited the ongoing conflict among them.

Based on the Christianity perspective, it was argued that the Bible in the Old Testament does not denounce polygamy. There were many examples of polygamous marriages of many honorable men such as David and Solomon. However, some churches in the times of yore embolden polygamous men to divorce their wives in exchange to the faith. Occasionally, the first wife is considered the authentic wife. The New Testament fulminates and objects polygamy and defines the marriage as one husband to one wife. It regards polygamy as unseemly practice; hence, it disallows polygamous husbands to participate of Holy Communion. Other churches treat the polygamous marriages issue differently; it treats it as part of the norm and tradition. These churches do not oppose bigamous men to participate in Holy Communion. However, they do not give bigamous men any leadership positions in a church.

In Islam, polygamy is legalized but it is restricted to maximum of four wives. Islam also conditions the performance of polygamy with achievement of equality and justice among the wives, which is considered the most important and a difficult condition to achieve. Because of the difficulty to achieve the equality among wives, Islam greatly encourages monogamous marriage. It considers the monogamous as the best option to provide a stable condition in a family, in which allows all family members to experience love and to get adequate care. Additionally, Islam stipulates for the polygamy seekers to demonstrate financial and physical competence in order to marry more than one wife.

Some communities worldwide perform polygamy as show of wealth and power and to heir the prospective wife or wives. Also, some men would like to take care of orphans and widows of their deceased relatives. This is because many countries do not provide any support to orphans, widows, and celibate women. Rather, they disallow and prohibit the practices of adultery, promiscuity, lesbianism, use of condom, single mother, and bastard. Moreover, the number of women in many countries exceeds the number of men. As a result, many communities embolden and allow the polygamy marriage in order to meet the women need. On the other hand, many women were raised within a tradition that degrades, belittles, teases, and ostracizes any woman involved in the sexual practices without men.

The opponents of polygamy see polygamy as sort of women degradation and the robbing of women’s rights. This is because they believe in the equality of the rights of women and men in the marriage spectrum. Therefore, they called for one man and one woman or vise versa. They considered polygamy to be even more fulsome, morose, and inept than homosexuality. They also believed that it is difficult for men to maintain multiple wives appropriately. This is because of socioeconomic reasons which emanates from the polygamy families structure and needs. So, it is difficult for husbands to provide a proper responsibility and care of multiple wives and children.

In conclusion, the proponents of polygamy have to study and treat all the negative aspects of marrying more than one wife decisively before making the decision for polygamy. They have to consider creating proper family environment that allows multiple wives and children to live in a stable condition. Wherein, all family members experience the love and care of a husband and father. They have to take in consideration the achievement of equality and justice among the multiple wives before embarking to marry more than one wife.

Ironically, the opponents of polygamy tolerate homosexuality and lesbianism. Yet they illicit or abrogate the polygamy, wherein a person can be convicted for bigamy. Those opponents ignore the need, libido, and the nature of women. They force many celibate women to suffer from their libido trauma to death, to succumb to promiscuity, to use raffish means such as condoms, or to lie down coercively for other women. They compel unmarried women to cheat with married women’s husbands with entire consent and pleasure. They coerce women to work toward breaking up family relation in order to get the opportunity to marry divorced men, so that they can bear non-bastard children.

In comparison to homosexuality and lesbianism, polygamy is considered a righteous and reliable option for celibate women to satisfy their sexual libido and to establish sound family. As a matter of fact, all children want to be born legally and to be raised among their fathers and mothers. Therefore, the opponents of polygamy worldwide should look at the polygamy issue objectively and use the interest of celibate women and children as a standard to measure the acceptance of polygamy. Many Women are facing chronicle dilemma of celibacy as a result of lessening of the number of men and banning polygamy. The polygamy is not women degradation, slavery, or misogyny of which demands war to liberate them. Rather, it is a matter of solving women’s catastrophe and establishing genuine family. Accordingly, polygamy deserves to be completely elided from liberation manifesto.