Factors and Consequences of Polygamy in Afghanistan

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate factors that cause the men in Afghanistan to turn to polygamy and show its familial, social and economic consequences. 

Polygamy is one of the axial discussions in Islamic sociology and a doctrinal belief in its social aspect. Continually Muslim intellectuals have been studying and describing the theme of polygamy and its preconditions, from different points of views in its all aspects. If we look into the preconditions that Islam has put, we find out that the holy religion of Islam allows the polygamy in the case that man can provide justice including moral justice such as having good relation based on bilateral respect with all wives, economic justice such as distributing wealth‌ fairly among his spouses. The research shows that main factors of polygamy in Afghanistan are piety, tribal rivalry, need of social immunity, abortion of the first wife, being sonless, illness of the wife, unawareness of the husband from his responsibilities, richness, social power and position and differences among spouses. Polygamy has positive consequences as it prevents the man from adultery, obscene actions and when the first wife is abortive, it paves the way for the man to have children from another wife. There are also negative consequences for polygamy; the important instances are increase of family disputes among wives, vagrancy of their children, spread of enmity among families, problem of not following justice and finally it causes heavenly punishment for the man. This paper suggests that polygamy should be enacted only in the case when the legal and religious conditions are provided by the man.