From CDHR
January 31, 2008
One Wife Won’t Do
By Ali Alyami
A Saudi delegation was recently questioned by a U.N. watchdog group in Geneva, concerning the lack of progress in women’s equality in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi delegation attributed the failure to implement International Women’s Rights Declarations to a variety of factors, including tradition, religion, and the sexual needs of men. When questioned about polygamy in Saudi Arabia, the delegation explained, “…men are permitted by law to have up to four wives. Sometimes the sexual appetite of a man is not satisfied by his wife and he must take another wife to satisfy this, otherwise he would be obliged to satisfy it in an illegal manner, outside of marriage…” It is unfortunate the U.N. group did not ask the Saudi delegation if it were appropriate for a Saudi woman to have four husbands at the same, if her sexual needs could not be satisfied by one husband.