I have yet to meet a muslim man with more than one wife let alone four..Such a lack of understanding of true islamic principles and provisions (and the use of them).
The strangest thing is that there's a sizable number of women who support the law in its current form. Religion is difficult to comprehend.
Different localities have different cultures, and for some, it's good. Say for example, in my locality (Kerala), Muslim men have more than a wife only on certain conditions like:
1. The first wife can't bear a child and the person marries another one without avoiding the earlier wife
2. Marrying widows so as to protect them (there might be occasional cases of exploiting this too, though I'm not aware of any).
I do also have seen a finger countable cases where a man marries some women to threaten other wives. But so far, I remember only two such cases in my neighborhood, and none in my family. Usually such men get really less support from the community.
So women having such an experience shall be supporting the current law.
Men deciding what women want is a repugnant thing to do. To use your own examples:
1. If infertility is with the man, can the woman simulataneously keep two husbands?
2. Can a woman marry a widower to take care of him while being in a marriage?
Pretty sure this is blasphemous in Islam.
It's pretty much hard to get a woman married once divorced (pretty much every village in India at least, to say). But for males that isn't usually the case.
And considering Islam, it is men's duty to protect and feed his women, not the other way. I think this is true for all Abrahamic religions.
In Islam, this is even true when the women is rich. That is, the ownership of women's property won't change before or after marriage. The man have to provide food and shelter to his wife and children regardless of the women's wealth. Women is free from such duties. There are also other issues like inheritance (finding the true father of child), or considering the spouse equally (to the extend that a person with two wives should spent every alternate day which one wife and the other day with the other. This isn't possible when a woman marry two man, where there is pregnancy period, etc.)
And to answer your question: No. Islam doesn't allow that.
Women's rights are an absolute, irrespective of whichever religion people belong. If that means striking off what's regressive from the holy books, that's what liberal believers need to do. The sooner we get to Uniform Civil Code, the better.
(Same as most Abrahamic religions, since you mentioned those.)
And no, "it's our culture" is not an excuse for that.
Sure, but how common is it really? Are you talking 3% of Muslim men? (in which case it's peculiar to regard as a particulalry Muslim thing) Or 93%?
And what, specifically do we object to about it? I'm against polygamy only in that (at least in situations I know more about such as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints movement, or FLDS) it seems very heavily entwined with abuse of power and/or underage marriage, and cults. If polygamy was not coupled with those things then I would struggle to identify on what basis (if any) it is objectionable.
I completely agree that polygamy by itself isn't objectionable. What's objectionable is allowing it only for men.
We just read about false information being spread about religions, and about Islam in particular. Let's be careful to back up what we say.
Polygamy is common is all major religions in India. Also it can be argued in most Indian cases having a mistress is polygamy too.
You will also be a tad little surprised to know Muslims are the least polygamous community in India.
https://scroll.in/article/669083/muslim-women-and-the-surpri...
>>The strangest thing is that there's a sizable number of women who support the law in its current form.
Polygamy has/had its uses across history. Also if you don't mass murder girls like they do in India, you inevitably come up with use cases for things like these.
>>Religion is difficult to comprehend.
Its isn't. Religion is social evolution. That a few things don't apply to one person, doesn't mean they don't apply to billions of people.
For that matter other religions register under special marriage act in which Polygamy is forbidden too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Personal_Law_in_India https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1325952/