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A women’s group campaigning to stop polygamous marriages among
Israeli Bedouin is running into strong resistance from Islamic groups and
even some politicians. The organizers of the "No Excuse for Polygamy"
campaign, launched at the end of November, have been called infidels in
newspaper editorials and accused of serving the Zionist agenda by limiting
the Arab birth rate. Last Friday’s sermon in a mosque in the Bedouin town of Even heads of Safa Shehadeh, director of Ma'an – the Forum for Arab Bedouin
Women's Organizations of the "There were no personal threats against us," Shehadeh
told The Media Line, "but some of the articles published by members of the
Islamic Movement and municipal leaders included tacit threats." In Islam, a man may marry up to four wives on condition that he
provides for them equally. But in most Arab societies the phenomenon is
frowned upon and in Husbands will have their polygamous marriages sanctified
religiously but not in the government marriage registrar. Indeed, many
second, third and fourth wives are officially listed as single parents,
entitling them to allowances. Since polygamous marriages aren’t recognized by the government,
no official statistics exist. But the Research and Information Center of
Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, estimates that somewhere between 20% and 36%
of Bedouin households in the southern The Working Group for Equality in Personal Status Issues
(WGEPSI), which organized the campaign against multiple marriages, believes
the number is at the high end of that range. It blames a lack of
education and an undeclared Israeli policy of legal non-intervention as the
main causes. Primarily a media campaign using posters with women's
testimonials, the "No Excuse for Polygamy" initiative also holds
meetings and seminars aimed at educating single women about the price of
polygamy. The campaign defending polygamy has been more visceral. A menacing red and black advertisement published in Al-Hadath, a
newspaper published in Rahat, urged women who had failed to get married by
age 30 to find a husband to share. "What is the solution for 7,513 unmarried women in the
Negev over the age of 30?" the advertisement rhetorically asked.
"Polygamy -- a shariah-sanctioned solution!" it said, answering its
own question by defending the practice as approved under Islamic law. Heba Yazbak, WGEPSI's activities coordinator, said she was
heartened by the counter-measures. "This proves that our campaign
has really destabilized them," she told The Media Line. "Many men
in the southern branch of the Islamic Movement are married to more than one
woman, so they have a personal stake in this." Yazbak noted that the counter-campaign calls itself the
Committee for Women's Equality in the Negev, a name similar to her own
organization. It also copied the logo and poster design of the original
anti-polygamy campaign. "It seems that our campaign threatens
everyone," she said. Sheikh Hammad Abu-Da'abes, head of the Islamic Movement's
southern branch, said the women's movements had no answer to the growing
problem of spinsterhood in a fast-urbanizing Bedouin society. Some 200,000 Bedouin live in Israel, mostly in the Negev desert.
With an annual growth rate of 5.5%, Israeli Bedouins are one of the fastest
growing populations in the world. "Women are the greatest beneficiaries of polygamy,"
Abu-Da'abes told the Israeli-Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab. "Spinsterhood has
reached 25% in Arab society, and when we fight polygamy we shut the door in
the face of many women who wish to marry half a man due to their inability to
marry a full man." Yazbak dismissed Abu-Da'abes’ argument, saying polygamy causes
poverty and dissolves the family structure. She asserted that Israel’s policy
of non-intervention was part of a larger strategy to keep Arab society in
Israel impoverished. "Israeli law is not applied in the Negev," she said.
"This is a marginalized and neglected part of the country."
Shehadeh of Ma'an said the opposition to the women’s campaign
won’t sway her from fighting polygamy. "They tried to question our legitimacy, our credibility and
our patriotism, but this is a human rights issue,” she said. “We don't even
go into the religious question of whether it's permissible or
not." |