BFF   

A Tunisian Islamist party has called for a new law allowing polygamy and/or allowing the system of concubines, just like the old days. Islam allows up to four wives, (although there is a condition of equal treatment). Islam also allowed men to have intercourse with their female slaves in addition to their wives (no, the reverse was not allowed).
The leader of the Infitah (Openness, Open-minded) Party has asked for a law allowing a man to enjoy his concubines as well as his wife. He did stipulate that only a man who has one wife can be allowed to own concubines. Tunisia’s previous secular regime had banned polygamy since the days of first president Habib Bourguiba at independence from France.
I also recall that Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of Libya’s National Transitory Council (NTC), said a few months ago, as soon as they controlled Tripoli, that they will cancel a Qaddafi law that restricted polygamy and required permission of the first wife. The good news for Tunisians, for most of them, is that other political parties are rejecting these demands.
Look for Salafi and other Islamist and tribal types from North Africa to the Gulf to start demanding a return of concubines. A certain segment of the population on the Gulf loves polygamy, and they have been pushing incentives to encourage men to take more wives. And not just the Salafis. For the potentates, polygamy is considered de rigueur; almost as de rigueur as the jet black dyed goatee beard. I firmly believe that nobody can become king of Saudi Arabia without having a jet black dyed goatee and at least two wives, preferably more. If they had a constitution, insistence on a goatee would be the first article if that constitution. Insistence on polygamy would be the second article of the constitution.

(No, there will be no concubines, at least not yet. Even the Salafis are too worried to actually demand it, no matter how much they would love to).
Cheers
mhg


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