1 - Introduction: Polygamy, Law and Women’s Lives

Summary

What do you think about when you hear the word ‘polygamy’? When I think about this word, which refers to when someone is married to more than one person at the same time, a childhood memory comes to mind. I am looking through some old photographs in the spare bedroom, and I come across the picture of a woman. She is standing in prayer, her eyes downcast with a serene expression on her face. I have never seen this woman before and take the picture to my dad to ask who she is. He tells me nonchalantly that the woman is his Bari Amma or elder mother. Bari Amma was my third grandmother (or maybe my first, since she was the eldest). She was married to my paternal grandfather, or dada, but she was unable to have children so she gave her husband permission to marry my biological grandmother, my Granny. My dad and his siblings harbour genuine affection for Bari Amma. Even now, something will trigger a memory of her in my dad and he will smile at the thought. Bari Amma never lived permanently with my dad's family, although she was especially attached to one of my uncles. Beyond this, I know little else about her. She and my grandfather passed away before I was born and so I never saw her or my Granny as actively polygamous wives. There was never any judgement of Bari Amma or of my grandparents’ polygamy; they simply were, and are, a part of my rich family history.

This book is a response to my increasing curiosity about how women like Granny and Bari Amma are seen and treated in English law and policy. I present the first exploration of the English legal framework on polygamous marriages, with an analysis of over 50 cases, drawing on critical postcolonial feminist perspectives. I also share the stories of 26 women who spoke with me about their experiences and views around polygamy and marriage in law, society, culture and religion in the first empirical project of this kind in the UK. I situate English legal responses to polygamy in their wider context and disrupt the dominant narratives that have shaped them, arguing that the law in this area is severely outdated and remains heavily influenced by racist, sexist, imperialist and orientalist attitudes.