Polygamy: The “Fruit-Vendor’s” logic and the Islamic view – Part 2 [Archives:2008/1200/Culture]

By: Hanan Al-Wadee
For the Yemen Times
Reflecting on an incident from her childhood, Hanan Al-Wadee, researcher with an M.A. in Human Rights, confronts polygamy from a religious point of view.

Prophet Muhammad started a polygamous marital life when he was over fifty, an age after which the sex drive of men often diminishes. Sex is often the primary motive for cheating or marrying another woman, as it is alleged that a man's sexual needs exceeds that of a woman. Based on this allegation, which has since bee proven wrong by dozens of scientific researches, one woman cannot suffice a man's sexual needs. This leads a researcher to an obvious question: why was Prophet Muhammad content with one woman in the beginning of his life during the prime of his youth and his sexual energy?

And from a religious-historical perspective, why didn't God create four Eves, or even two for Adam, considering that they were the first two who established and practiced sex on earth? If sex is an indisputable motive to practice polygamy, then it must have been a priority to accurately portray it through the first example that was given to mankind regarding this matter.

Masculine society originates from the family, the street, one's friends and the media, all of which promote intentionally or unintentionally that wrong perception of polygamy. And men tend to believe it so that they are able to justify their second, third, fourth and even tenth marriage, and are permitted to keep divorcing and marrying women until they have turned God's permission (for practicing polygamy) into what resembles prostitution.

In his book, “Fi Thilal Al-Quran””- “”In the Shadows of Quran””-the martyr Sayed Kotob says about this matter:””If a generation misused that permission