Daughters of Eve

elements and multiple hazards while earning a livelihood, there are,
and have always been, more widows in the world than widowers.
Without any concession for polygyny, hundreds of thousands of
women in the world, many with young children, are denied their need
for a husband, a breadwinner, and a companion to share the load.
Couple that with the fact that the very biological and psychological
build-up of men and women is consistent with polygyny: while a
woman has been designed to be able to conceive only once every ten
months or so, a man can impregnate a woman every time he embraces
her. And psychologically, while a man’s primary need is for respect and
to be needed, a woman’s primary need is to be cherished and
protected. Put all of these things together in a society which cannot
accept polygyny and what you get is extra-marital affairs. As Dr. Annie
Besant put it:
“You can find others stating that the religion [of Isl\m] is evil,
because it sanctions a limited polygamy. But you do not hear as
a rule... that monogamy with a blended mass of prostitution [is]
a hypocrisy and more degrading than a limited polygamy...
“...it must be remembered that the law of Islam in relation to
women was until lately, when parts of it have been imitated in
England, the most just law, as far as women are concerned, to
be found in the world...
“Those things are forgotten while people are hypnotized by
the words monogamy and polygamy and do not look at what
lies behind it in the West - the frightful degradation of women
who are thrown into the streets when their first protectors,
weary of them, no longer give them any assistance…
“I often think that woman is more free in Islam than in
Christianity. Woman is more protected by Islam than by the
faith which preaches monogamy.”
Annie Besant, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, pp. 25, 26.
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