If passed the law will include a ban on forced marriages, child marriages and polygamous marriages. Photo: Sunday Alamba/AP
Nigeria’s most respected and powerful Muslim leader, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, said there will soon be a law, which prohibits polygamy among poor men who can’t look after their wives and families.
The leader directed his emirate to work with Islamic scholars and the Bayero University to draft a new law to address marriage-related problems among Muslims community in the north especially with poor polygamous families.
In his speech to the Muslim community, he said he was confident that the law would outline the real position of Islam on marriage-related issues, including the criminality of domestic violence.
“Those of us in the Muslim north have all seen the economic consequences of men who are not capable of maintaining one wife, marrying four. They end up producing 20 children, not educating them, leaving them on the streets, and they end as thugs and terrorists,” said Emir Sanusi II.
Under Islamic marital jurisprudence, men are allowed to practice polygamy, to have more than one wife, and up to a total of four. Polygamy for Muslims, in practice and in law, differs greatly throughout the Islamic world. In some Muslim countries, polygamy is relatively common, while in others, it is rare or non-existent. There are predominantly Muslim countries that have not adopted Islamic law for marital regulations, where polygamy is not legal especially in Turkey and Tunisia.
The draft law would state the conditions under which a man would be able to take a second wife.
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The local media reports that, the law if passed will include a ban on forced marriages, child marriages and polygamous marriages in which a husband cannot see to the financial well-being of his wives. The law will also look at cases of divorce, death, inheritance and the maintenance of children.
A picture of mosque taken in Abuja Nigeria Photo: www.flickr.com/photos
The draft law is expected to be ready soon, and will be submitted to the state government in Kano for approval and it will be the first of its kind in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria.
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