Iraqi MP behind controversial polygamy bill claims colleagues backing
Iraqi MP Jamila al-Ebeidi.
Jamila al-Ebeidi said 75 percent of fellow female MPs support her bill which provides for financial assistance for men who marry more than one woman. Her proposal has stirred a controversy and some criticisms from fellow members.
Ebeidi, during a press conference inside the parliament, said she was planning to submit the proposal the chamber’s speaker for discussion in the presence of social affairs experts.
“Polygamy is not a fad, but rather a divine legislation sanctioned by the constitution and the law, a social solution for many problems witnessed by communities with high spinsterhood rates,”Ebeidi said. “Those who criticized me are unaware that women receive a dowry in return for accepting the marriage, so there is no bargaining in the matter.”
Critics of Ebeidi’s bill say it turns women into a bargainable commodity, as they put it.
Rezan Delir, a Kurdish member of the committee, labelled the proposal “ an insult of women’s dignity” and a “distraction from the war against the Islamic State”.
Polygamy is permissible in Islam and most Muslim countries by up to 4 wives. In 2016, Iraq’s Federal Judicial Authority said divorces reached 53.182 until December, compared to 196.89 marriages. If December was included, the rate could be recorded as the highest since 2011.
Ebeidi said that while 75 percent of women problems could be solved by employment and business subsidization, the rest could be resolved by providing youths with incentives to marry widows.
“If a woman does not enjoy her legal right, she will seek it illegally, and i do not think any person would accept that his sister or daughter gets implicated in illegal affairs or friendships with someone,” Ebeidi said.