New Sunday Times
7th January 2007

Making it harder to get second wife

KUALA LUMPUR: Muslim husbands who plan to take more than one wife should be compelled under the law to provide a home under the name of their first wife and children before they practise polygamy.

This is one of the resolutions adopted at a forum on Muslim women’s rights in marriage organised by Sisters in Islam (SIS) here yesterday.

The participants, including male religious scholars, also want a law to prevent a husband taking a second wife if alimony for the first wife and children has not been paid. The husband should face imprisonment if he flouts such a law.

Terengganu mufti Datuk Ismail Yahya, who attended the forum, said: "The premarital course should be revised to be more interesting and informative so men and women are made more aware of their rights and responsibilities after marriage."

SIS National Survey Project researcher Prof Norani Othman said research on the impact of polygamy on the family institution, which would include 6,000 respondents in a nationwide survey, was being carried out.

"We will interview husbands who are practising or used to practise polygamy, first wives, second wives, children from the first marriage as well as children from the second marriage, to make the research comprehensive."

Indonesian film director Nia Dinata said she highlighted the problems of polygamy in her movie Berbagi Suami (Sharing A Husband), which opens here on Thursday.

"Even though the movie is fiction, it is backed by research," she said.

About 200 women from various organisations attended the forum, which covered topics on polygamy, divorce, custody, alimony and inheritance in Islam