WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
A wife may incur necessary debts in her husband's name.
A virgin of adult age cannot be compelled to marry.
A divorced woman, or a widow, may marry again.
A woman pays only half of a fine paid by a man for legal offences.
Women must not be killed in warfare.
A wife may, with her husband's consent, seek for divorce.
No wife can be convicted of adultery without the actual evidence of four witnesses.[1]
The legal and social disabilities of the women of Islam are:—
No woman can object to be one of four wives, nor to the number of concubines maintained by her husband.
Wives may be chastised. We are informed that such punishment is rare.
Women cannot give evidence as witnesses in law courts.
A wife must obey her husband implicitly.
Wives can be repudiated for several causes. Such repudiation is, however, not very common, and Mohammed warned husbands against discharging their wives through caprice or for insufficient reasons.
The secluded life of the harem, and the lack of
- ↑ "Personal Laws of the Mohammedans"—Ameer Ali.
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