Download - University of Salford Institutional Repository

number of man ? If we suppose that the one-wife system or monogamy
is to be followed, the resulting 'surplus' of unmarried women may
have unwelcome social consequences such an a drop in the birth rate or
a rise in the rate of illegitimacy. This causes hardship to the
women themselves and sometimes a weakening in family bonds. Under
such circumstances, polygamy would be the best means in order to
protect such women and to protect the society an a whole.
Individual Necessities
1. , In certain circumstances, polygamy can be a humans solution
to humane problems, for ý example, if a woman suf fore from a chronic
or infectious disease. which makes her unable to undertake her
marital duties. in such a case. her husband may take another wife.
She herself need not be divorced, but remains partof the family
and her husband continues to maintain her and at the same time, she
loses no social status, and there is no bar to her husband begetting
a "family. This may well be' a better solution in terms of both I
protecting the family life and the sick wife.
2. If the wife is bar an ind incapable of giving birth to children,
and the husband wants to have children, "It becomes understandable
why polygamy is likely to exist or be advocated in societies where
adoption. for example, is not legalised and the desire for children can
be satisfied only through legitimate procreation and where sexual
conti nence is highly valued and sexual expression is tightly restricted
to wedlock or where status indices are limited or fixed. " 1 In the
Saudi society for example, sometimes the barren wife herself may look
Abd. &Ohti; op. cit., P. 111
105