A 23-year-old journalist in Afghanistan was sentenced to death because he had distributed a newspaper article to students at Balkh University, asking why men are allowed to have four wives, but women can’t have muliple husbands. The Hartford Courant Article explains that the courts found the article humiliating to Islam due to the questions about Polygamy.
The Islam religion does not look at marriage as a sacrament like in the Catholic religion but looks at it as a legal arrangment where the spouses take control of certain responsiblies, like bearing children and sharing inheritance. Polygamy is not required in the Islam religion and has restrictions. A man is only allowed four wives and has to treat each wife equally. A woman is not forced into a Polygamy marriage and could sign a contract stating that her husband may not marry another woman.
Most Islamic women do not see Polygamy as defaming, but just helping the extension of a family.
Many feminists in the United States though think Polygamy is demeaning to women.
The Islam religion looks at the United States western culture very similiarly as American women look at Polygamy. They do not agree with living with a man before marriage or having a child out of wedlock.
