Why does Islam prohibit a woman from marrying more than one man if a man is allowed to have more than one wife?

Answer 1

First, polygamy or having a man married with more than one woman is the marriage rule since start of mankind in all religions and even among prophets. Islam limited number of wives to four and imposed conditions on marrying with more than wife such that practically almost all Muslims are married with one wife not more. Refer to related question on polygamy in different religions.

Accordingly, why in all religions it is , or was, allowed for man to marry more than one woman while woman is not allowed to be married with more than one man. Some of the reasons are:

• The physical nature of woman emotions is not to be directed to more than one husband,
• Man is responsible of spending and caring of woman and he can expand it , when available, to more than one woman. However, woman can't be responsible of spending and caring of more than one husband.
• Woman is having menstruation (the monthly period) and is amenable to pregnancy and feeding the child, something that doesn't allow her capability and time to sexually satisfy, and get satisfied, with more than one husband, and lastly and more importantly
• Difficulty of tracking who is the father of the born child when woman get in intercourse sex with more than one husband.

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Dr. Zakir Naik explains this in his book 'Answers to non-Muslims common questions about Islam' as;

A lot of people, including some Muslims, question the logic of allowing Muslim men to have more than one spouse while denying the same 'right' to women.

Let me first state emphatically, that the foundation of an Islamic society is justice and equity. Allah has created men and women as equal, but with different capabilities and different responsibilities. Men and women are different, physiologically and psychologically. Their roles and responsibilities are different.

Men and women are equal in Islam, but not identical.

Surah Nisa' Chapter 4 verses 22 to 24 gives the list of women with whom

Muslim men cannot marry. It is further mentioned in Surah Nisa' Chapter 4 verse 24 "Also (prohibited are) women already married"

The following points enumerate the reasons why polyandry is prohibited in Islam:

1. If a man has more than one wife, the parents of the children born of such marriages can easily be identified. The father as well as the mother can easily be identified. In case of a woman marrying more than one husband, only the mother of the children born of such marriages will be identified and not the father. Islam gives tremendous importance to the identification of both of the parents, mother and father. Psychologists tell us that children who do not know their parents, especially their father undergo severe mental trauma and disturbances. Often they have an unhappy childhood. It is for this reason that the children of prostitutes do not have a healthy childhood.

If a child born of such wedlock is admitted in school, and when the mother is asked the name of the father, she would have to give two or more names!

I am aware that recent advances in science have made it possible for both the mother and father to be identified with the help of genetic testing. Thus this point which was applicable for the past may not be applicable for the present.

2. Man is more polygamous by nature as compared to a woman.

3. Biologically, it is easier for a man to perform his duties as a husband despite having several wives. A woman, in a similar position, having several husbands, will not find it possible to perform her duties as a wife. A woman undergoes several psychological and behavioural changes due to different phases of the menstrual cycle.

4. A woman who has more than one husband will have several sexual partners at the same time and has a high chance of acquiring venereal or sexually transmitted diseases which can also be transmitted back to her husband even if all of them have no extra-marital sex. This is not the case in a man having more than one wife, and none of them having extra-marital sex.

The above reasons are those that one can easily identify. There are probably many more reasons why Allah, in His Infinite Wisdom, has prohibited polyandry.