Polygamy and the Obedient Wives Club (OWC)

I came across this e-mail recently, and thought it worth sharing. It publicises an Islamic talk on polygamy, to be held in West London today. It’s a raw expression of attitudes within quite traditional societies – pretty hilarious and somewhat cringe-worthy too. As the saying goes, you can’t make this shit up. Enjoy!

CAN THE OBEDIENT WIVES CLUB (OWC) - aka THE POLYGAMY CLUB WORK IN THE UK?

A debate and discussion with Brother M Ali and both his wives [Founding members of the Global Ikhwan Polygamy Club]

Date: Wednesday 23rd November 2011

Time: 6.30 pm – 8.00 pm

Venue: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

In July this year, Global Ikhwan, a group based in Malaysia launched, with great controversy, the "Obedient Wives Club (OWC)", with admirable intentions to curb various social ills, including prostitution and gambling, by showing Muslim wives how to "be submissive and keep their spouses happy in the bedroom". The understanding is that this, in turn, would lead to more harmonious marriages and societies.

"In Islam, if the husband wants sex and the wife is not in the mood, she has to give in to him. If not, the angels will curse her. This is not good for the family." (Mrs Dr Darlan Zaini, literature professor and co-founder of OWC)

"If we provide our husbands [with] more than a prostitute can give, then he will not go out looking for it. Men are by nature polygamous, we hear of many men having the ‘other woman,’ affairs and prostitution because for men, one woman is not enough. Polygamy is a way to overcome social ills such as this.” (Dr Rohaya Mohamad, medical doctor and 3rd wife of Mohamad Ikram Ashaari)

Global branches have now opened in Australia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Indonesia and now London. With a huge "Muslim spinster" crisis, and increasingly large numbers of divorced women with children, could this be a solution for women in the UK and help stop Muslim men ordering their "mail order brides" from the Muslim world as well as curb their secret weekend retreats, made easy thanks to EasyJet and Ryanair?

Apparently, the above Dr Rohaya Mohamad also declared that by becoming a “good whore …to your husband” and serving him “better than a first-class prostitute”, women could help "curb social ills like prostitution, domestic violence, human trafficking and abandoned babies" – all of which she attributed to unfulfilled sexual needs. – see the Guardian.

Weird things are happening in Malaysia and the Far East – first the cult of the Islamic Gold Dinar (to replace the imperialist invention that is paper currency) and now this. These champions of polygamy appear to have also published a book entitled “Islamic Sex: Fighting Jews to Return Islamic Sex to the World.” Now, I know that Jews are very good at business and moneylending, but sex as well! For those not familiar, an imagined Jewish threat is pretty much an article of faith among zealously orthodox Muslims. It’s in the history and in the present of course. In the comedy film, Four Lions, a car breakdown was blamed on a conspiracy of ‘Jewish spark plugs’! Naturally also, some Muslims and many Islamic organisations want to ‘Islamize’ everything (by their own admission). From Islamic banks and mortgages to Islamic environmentalism and Islamic ethics, Islamic social sciences, the “Islamization of knowledge” programme in the US, Islamic holidays, and now Islamic sex, we have it all.

The subject of polygamy seems to have headlined in the Arab Spring too. Back in October, in a set-piece speech and with the world’s media looking on, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the interim government in Libya, said a strange thing. He declared that polygamy would be allowed, as per the Sharia, and that existing restrictions on it would be lifted. Quite why this was so important to him remains a mystery. His intention may have been to appease the small but vocal Islamists – in which case it reminds us (as in Pakistan) that this is what matters most to the religious establishment. Not democracy or freedom, for these are man-made concepts, but polygamy, triple talaq (divorce), stoning women, etc.