Islamic Marriage Contracts, Polygamy and Divorce

I cry, and do you know what makes me cry?
I cry out of fear that you may go away from me
And cut off our relation and leave me alone...
-Cameldriver's Song (Schimmel, p.23).

This song reflects the feelings of most Muslim women who fear divorce when their husbands take other wives. The effects of Islamic laws concerning marriage contracts, polygamy, and divorce on women will be discussed in this paper.

One marriage contract that disrespects women is a forced marriage (where a husband is selected at the time of birth of the female). According to Fernea, Arab women are forced to intermarry with relatives for inheritance reasons (p.37). In endogamy, women may marry their mother's nephew so that her dowry will remain in the family. These women do not have the luxury of marrying for love like we Americans do. Their matrimony is based on keeping their family financially capable. The dowry paid to the bride is called the mahr and is ideally used to buy jewelry and clothing for the bride and protect her financially in case of a divorce. However some women see the mahr as a price for the bride-signifying male dominance. The amount of the mahr is based on the bride's physical status, social class, political division, degree of endogamy, the physical proximity and social distances, and the age of the bride (Fernea, p.40-41). All of these discriminate the bride in how much she is paid for marrying a pre-selected husband. No wonder Islamic women feel oppressed.

Another factor thrust upon Islamic women is the young age in which they are expected to get married. Females can be as young as 12 or 13 and forced to marry men who are 20 or older. Fables tell of young wives married to older men who have secret younger boyfriends (Fernea, p. 41).