Note: An introduction to this piece can be found here. Anyone born into a typical Muslim family cannot avoid the central place that marriage occupies within the concept of a good Muslim life. Popular Muslim culture invests marriage with such religious significance that it is often described as comprising…
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Note: This piece is an introduction to Dr. Mohammad Fadel’s scholarly article on Islamic marriage, temporary marriage, secret marriage and polygamous marriage. Sometimes even holy men have their wicked schemes. Over the past few months, my colleagues and I have learned from multiple sources about a set of Muslim celebrity-scholars…
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Dear M, I am 41-year-old, twice divorced Muslim woman. I met a man online who is a kind, successful and intelligent practicing Muslim. He has proposed, and I have no reason to decline except that he happens to be married. His wife has serious medical problems which prevent them from…
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The New York Times’ Women in the World reports that there’s a new Tinder-style app to help polygamous Muslim men looking for a second wife. The app, My Diaspora, has become popular in the UK, where it is estimated there have been about 200,000 polygamous marriages. Men can talk to up…
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“It was not enough to be born in Karachi to be from Karachi. It was not enough to live in Karachi to be from Karachi. It was also not enough to be born in Karachi and to live in Karachi to be from Karachi.” As Rafia Zakaria explains in “The…
Read MoreThe show Big Love has also added to the popular imagination about polygamous households. While the Mormon Fundamentalists were in the national spotlight, Muslims have quietly practiced polygyny in America. Barbara Hagerty writes, “No one knows how many Muslims in the U.S. live in polygamous families. But according to academics researching the issue, estimates range from 50,000 to 100,000 people”
Read MoreOne of the primary reasons why Islam was revealed was to guarantee and clarify the important basic rights of women, and particularly their rights with regards to marriage, divorce, alimony, custody and related issues. We should not allow horrors such as sex trafficking, prostitution, and other sexually exploitative unions to hide within the guise of Islamic marriages.
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