Trauma beneath the burqa

Sunni Muslim women seek ban on polygamy

Representational image | Pic: PTI

Mumbai: A landmark survey among Sunni Muslim women living in polygamous marriages has exposed a deep and dark pattern of emotional, economical and social injustice besides severe health constraints, all of which combine to arrest the progress of the community, especially among the economically weaker sections.

Conducted between July-November by Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the alarming study of 2,508 Sunni Muslim women in 7 states found that polygamy was more widespread than earlier believed, said BMMA co-founders Zakia Soman and Noorjehan Niaz. Present were Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) activists like Javed Anand, Feroze Mithiborwala and some victims of polygamy.

Of the 2,508 veiled respondents, a shocking 87 pc (2,188) said that their husbands had 2 wives, 10 pc (259) reported husbands with 3 wives, and the remaining 3 pc (61) revealed their husbands had 4 or more wives.

Signalling a historic shift on the perceived ills of polygamy, 87 pc of all the women demanded the application of IPC 494/BNSS 86 on polygamous Sunni Muslim men and 86 pc want full codification of Muslim Personal Law with legal protection, transparency and accountability, said Soman and Niaz.

The eye-opener survey found that the first and second wives in such marriages were aged between 31-50, and 59 pc had only secondary school education, with accompanying acute financial insecurity. 65 pc of the first wives earned less than Rs 5000/month, the rest had no income, and the second wives’ economic conditions were even worse.

The situation of the first wives was pitiable from the time of marriage -  84 pc of them had no income, and later, 79 pc of all the women had nil income, 61 pc first wife and 32 pc second wife never received ‘Mehr’, and those who did, the amounts were as piddly as Rs 786 (30 pc) and around Rs 5,000 (43 pc).

Against this, 32 pc of the first wives coughed out dowry (between Rs 50,000-Rs 200,000), though the incidence of dowry was much lesser among the second wives, with the polygamy plague affecting an estimated 20 pc of the Sunni Muslims community, who comprise around 88 pc of the total Islam followers in India.

Though 97 pc of the BMMA surveyed women admitted that the formal consent (‘Qubool Hai’) for marriage was taken by the Qazi, 83 pc never read their ‘Nikaah-nama’ (marriage certificate) and 38 pc had no idea of the crucial document that was held by their husbands/relatives.

They further revealed that at the time of ‘Nikaah’, a staggering 60 pc of the men were educated till Class X or less, 66 pc earned meagre (below Rs 20,000/month), and while first wives were usually saddled with lower-income families, the second wives hitched onto men who were more stable financially, said the BMMA study.

With families crumbling, 47 pc first wives returned to their parents’ homes but depended on them or charity for survival as 40 pc of all women received no maintenance and 5 pc got less than Rs 2000/month.

The second wives also didn’t fare better – 29 pc faced desertion as husbands rejoined the first wife - though a total 89 pc of all Sunni Muslim women confirmed that the scourge of ‘Triple Talaq’ has declined, indicating that legal reform can help transform lives.

“The study unequivocally concludes that polygamy causes profound emotional trauma, economic deprivation and psychological harm, kids suffer, religion is misused to justify injustice while the Islamic tenets of justice, compassion and fairness are discarded,” said the BMMA leaders.

Polygamous ‘cloak-and-dagger’ kills families

Usually, secrecy shrouds second weddings - 88 pc of the first wives rued their permission was not sought, and 85 percent were never even informed by the husband. On the other hand, 68 pc of second wives were aware of the first wife, but the remaining (32 pc) were tricked into marriage.

The husbands’ patriarchal arguments for a second wife included – 31 pc claiming to ‘love’ some other woman, 30 pc justifying it as an Islamic religious right, infertility, for begetting a son or family pressures, while 17 pc cited no reasons at all for repeat matrimony – and 13 pc men resorted to plain deception to lure their second wives, claiming either divorce, desertion or death by the first wife.

Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of the Sunni Muslim women trapped in polygamy want the practice legally banned, and even in the purported ‘exceptions’ (infertility, terminal illness or incompatibility), most abhor re-marriage as the solution, the BMMA survey revealed.