Author: Correspondent
Publication: The Khaleej Times
Date: July 8, 2010
URL: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=middleeast&xfile=data/middleeast/2010/July/middleeast_July120.xml
A group of young Saudis have launched a Facebook
campaign to promote polygamy as a way to end spinsterhood among women in the
country.
Called "We Want Them Four," it asks
every capable Saudi man to marry four women to reduce the number of spinsters
in the country.
There are no statistics on the number of unmarried
women in Saudi Arabia, but their number is believed to be high due to high
wedding costs.
"Every Saudi and Arab man who is financially
and physically able to marry more than one wife should not hesitate to do
so in order to end spinsterhood among our women and help cap the high marriage
costs that have deterred many young men from getting married," the campaign
page says.
Arab families have also been urged not to
complicate marriage preparations by asking for a huge dowry and other financial
obligations that young men are unable to meet.
The campaigners also ask men who marry more
than one wife to be fair and treat them equally as advocated by Islam. Another
group of young men has launched another similar Facebook campaign, which says
Islam did not invent the idea of polygamy but only formalised it. They said
the West was looking suspiciously at Muslims who marry more than one woman,
especially as some of them did not observe Islamís rules on the matter.
'You should not get a second wife just for
the sake of it. You should marry when there is a need for a second, third
or fourth wife and you are financially able to support them and be fair and
just in your treatment of them,' the campaign page said.
Meanwhile a new Internet service has asked
all those wishing to marry to register their names and data.
The service promised to keep the data of those
who registered completely confidential while looking for a match for them.
The organisers of the forum said most of the
applications they received were from men seeking a second or a third wife.
- habib@khaleejtimes.com