Egypt: ‘Polygamy campaign’ to combat social stigma attached to women!

Cairo – “A married woman is fared far better than the unmarried.” “Sharing a husband is better than never [having one].” That’s how Mona Abu Shanab, founder of a self-styled ‘Polygamy Campaign,’ explained her pro-polygamy campaign initiative.

Polygamy is the practice or custom of having more than one wife at the same time.

In this regard, Abu Shanab deprecated family status law as being “totally unfair to men, women and children, and the cause of the two chronic, social ills in Egypt, namely spinsterhood and divorce.

She explained: “The Family Law makes it difficult for divorced men or women to be given custody of the child in case of remarriage. That’s why many divorcees resort to common marriage (Urfi) in order to keep custody of the child or the alimony of the husband.”

In an exclusive statement to the Al-Bawaba News Portal, Abu Shanab affirmed women still suffer from repression and maltreatment in society despite the great strides they have made.

She explained: “When in her 40s, I think the wife is usually led to believe that she is the center of the house, and that she has the final say in the house. This attitude or mindset makes her a ‘nagging wife’ who is asking for trouble, and nothing seems to please her, while her husband is looking for inner peace and emotional stability.”

Alpha Women, Beta Men, Gamma Children

She also added that during this age the wife neglects her self-care, both emotionally and physically. Her overriding concern becomes how to feed, educate and eventually marry off her children at the expense of the hapless husband. On the other side, the husband does not even find a morsel of love, care and attention.  At this critical age, the man finds himself still young enough to engage in another relationship, whether extramarital or otherwise in his pursuit to gratify his unbridled desires. That is why I am campaigning for the reinstatement of the divine ruling of polygamy which has been ordained by God –Almighty- to specifically solve a set of social, emotional, psychological and racial problems.

Abu Shanab asserted that the National Council for Women pays very little attention to the divorced and [older] single women. What it provides is only directed to dependent women who are the breadwinners of their families.

Abu Shanab also pointed out that she was fiercely attacked by a lot of women when she took her campaign initiative of polygamy to society, saying: “In the past, the father used to  seek a spouse for his daughter, in stark contrast to what is going on now. Today, families ask for bundles of money in dowry and jewelry, while losing sight of the disastrous consequences of their unreasonable conditions on the groom. It might end up that their daughter becomes what generations of the past would call an ‘old maid’, making the parents the real culprits. Similarly, the mother would be tantamount to the mother of her son-in-law. However, now most divorce cases are blamed on mother-in-laws.”

Marriage: The Misunderstood Tradition

She continued saying: “Marriage is a means of chastity, purity, safety and tranquility. Today we find young man recoiling from it, and indulge in other illegitimate relationships. Likewise, many young girls also escape the responsibility of marriage, and eventually end up in regret over that decision as life goes by.”

Abu Shanab pointed out that most of the believers in her cause are older, single women who are looking for marriage themselves. Many wives know men other than their husbands and fear the negative consequences of divorce; as one of the worst social taboos.

“Our society suffers from a sort of disorder in the relationship between men and women in general and there must be proper solutions. She described those who attack her campaign as people who cannot come up with solutions for these social ills within the scope of Islamic law, as her campaign calls for.”