staying in lockdown for the duration, spare a thought for the polygamists out there, photograph Aranxa
Esteve/Unsplash, especially if you live in a country like Kuwait, where polygamists make up about 8 percent of the Arab countries population, and has imposed some of the strictest rules to stop the spread of
the SARS-Cov2 virus in the Middle East, including a nationwide, lockdown until
May 30, suspending all but essential private and public sector activities, and
enforcing a curfew which only allows people to go out for groceries once every
six days. The strict measures are expected to slow the spread of the
coronavirus, but they are also making life much harder for polygamists, “My life has become so complicated,” Abu Othman, a
45-year-old polygamist and a father of 10, told AFP, “I am constantly on the move between them.
Sometimes police patrols understand my situation, while at other times I have
to apply for permission claiming there is a ‘family emergency'”,
Abu is one of the lucky polygamists who have
both wives living in the same area, making it easier to spend time with both
families, but for some, the lockdown is causing some serious relationship
problems. So serious is the seriousness of the situation in Kuwait that the
Fatwa Committee at Kuwait’s Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs had to step
in clarify things,
“A polygamist who is forced to live at one of
his wive’s houses because of the curfew must give the other (or others) a
choice between accepting it or agree to a divorce (if they so wish),” a member
of the committee told national media,
another member opted for a more relaxed
approach, suggesting that a polygamist man should simply draw the name of the
wife he will be quarantining with to simplify the decision, and then “make it
up” to his other wives by spending more nights at their homes when the
restrictions are lifted, so that all wives feel treated the same, unfortunately, things are not as simple as these committee
members assume they are, there are often many children involved in these
polygamist relationships, so divorce isn’t the ideal solution; as for blindly
picking one wife to spend the lockdown doesn’t account the jealousy and envy of
the other wives, and there you
were feeling sorry for yourself when the worlds polygamists are having a much harder time of it.
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