Polygamous Marriages in Peninsular Malaysia Family, Gender and Religion at the Crossroads

This book presents the first national study of the practice of polygamy undertaken amongst Malay Muslims, contextualised within the broader social, legal, and political context of Malaysia. A collaboration between the Sisters in Islam NGO and three universities in Malaysia, it examines the perspectives of both men and women through quantitative and qualitative data analysis of over 1,200 surveys and more than 60 in-depth interviews charting the legal, financial, social, and emotional impacts of polygamy. It incorporates both progressive Islamic scholarly thought and the unique sociologically rich perspectives of the study respondents. In doing so, the data serves to strengthen advocacy for awareness and law reforms within Islamic jurisprudence frameworks and institutions. As one of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on polygamy in a Muslim society, this represents a major tour de force within a little explored field with tremendous potential for societal impact. This book is relevant to academics and graduate students seeking a deeper understanding of the issues related to Muslim polygamous marriage and to researchers within the broader fields of gender studies, family studies, Islamic studies, and Islamic legal studies. It is also a landmark resource for activists and policymakers seeking to advocate on behalf of marginalised groups—particularly women and children in polygamous families.

Chapter 1. Islam, family life, and jurisprudence: A study of Muslim polygamous marriages in Malaysia.- Chapter 2. Fieldwork and Families: research methodology for the polygamy national study.

Norani Othman is one of Sisters in Islam’s seven founding members. She was also founding Research Fellow of IKMAS (Institute of Malaysian & International Studies), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and until January 2011, its Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Sociology, specialising in issues related to Islamic societies, human rights, rights & empowerment of women, democratisation, and globalisation.

Rozana Isa has been in the women’s rights movement for two decades. A graduate in accounting, she began her activism with the Women’s Aid Organisation in 1999. Over the years, she was exposed to the challenges faced by women to have their rights recognised and exercised in the context of increasing politicisation of race and religion within a democratic nation with parallel legal systems. She believes that knowledge, engagement, and community building are part of the key ingredients to address ethno-religious extremisms and to raise consciousness on gender equality. She currently serves as Executive Director for Sisters in Islam, an NGO working on women’s rights within the framework of Islam.

Yaso Nadarajah is an Associate Professor in the School of Global, Urban & Social Studies at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia;  Researcher, Educator, and Development Sociologist with a special interest in the areas of human ingenuity, community engagement, and international development. As Key A key researcher Researcher in RMIT’s Centre forRMIT Social Equity Research Centre Global Research, her primaryone of her major projects was undertaking was the Local-Global Community Sustainability project, a study of communities across a range of sites in Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea. This study has generated a wide range of research reports and academic publications, with a visible influence on public and community development policy. She is continuing her research in Papua New Guinea, India, Malaysia, and Australia, where she is working on a body of work around social change, cultural transformation, and ‘building from the ground up’.