Polygamy and why people should be imprisioned - Essay Example

Current followers of polygamy, also called plural marriage or the Principle, as it is referred to by those who practice it must can only be understood within the context of its social and historical ties. We should be careful to note, however, that the history of any practice is irrelevant to understanding its importance as a religious practice. While history can help us understand polygamy as outsiders, those within the group would likely consider the historical context irrelevant to the religious importance of the practice.

Whether we as outsiders think the practice is legitimately based on religious tenets or is recently "made-up" will not help us to understand the role that it plays. A forced marriage, in contrast, consists of imposing a partner on a girl or a young man, regardless of or even against their wishes. Young women can find themselves under threat of violence, even death, if they marry outside the community. Although of Pakistani ethnic origin, Nasreen Rafiq was a British citizen and Scottish domiciliary (Glasgow); prior to 1983, she had not been to Pakistan since she was six months old.

In 1983 she was taken to Pakistan, ostensibly for a visit, by her father; until the very last minute the fourteen year old girl did not realize that the wedding preparations she witnessed at the house of her relatives in Pakistan were intended for her own marriage to her cousin. She objected to the marriage; during the ceremony itself she vigorously refused her consent. Nevertheless, she was "married" to her cousin and left in what was to her a foreign country whose language she did not speak, without friends or funds, totally dependent on her "husband" and his relatives (who, although related to her, were strangers to herForced marriages are an issue in Belgium too.

As early as 1986, Jorgen Nielsen has noted that in Belgium "a more common problem than polygamy are cases of marriages forced on Moroccan girls to prevent them marrying a man of their own choice, especially if he is Belgian and non-Muslim". Young girls of Muslim origin have long been a central element of national integration and public health policies. It has been noted that in order to fight against violence and other forms of gender discrimination within the family, some Muslim girls in Belgium have devised strategies including the quoting of egalitarian Qur'anic verses to the father Consequently, polygamy can be given a kind of hidden approval.

Any marriage that occurs after the recording of a first marriage in the civil register will obviously have no legal status, but since marriages do not actually have to be registered, contracting more than one cannot be considered illegalEmotional abusingIn many cultures, women are the repositories of family honour, which makes them first victim if this honour is brought into question through allegations or actual violation by themselves or by their family members. The UN population fund estimates that about 5000 women are killed each year around the world throughso called honour killing (Feminist.com, 2003) A study of female homicide in Egypt, revealed that 47% of all women killed were murdered by a relative after they had been raped (Side Bars, 2003).

In parts of Ethiopia, families and communities use abduction and rape as a tool to take wives who risk being ostracised if they do not consent. Female