{"id":8527,"date":"2014-04-14T13:38:40","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T13:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=8527"},"modified":"2014-04-14T13:38:40","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T13:38:40","slug":"i-would-never-be-a-second-wife-uae-women-slam-spinster-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/i-would-never-be-a-second-wife-uae-women-slam-spinster-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I would never be a second wife\u2019: UAE women slam \u2018spinster\u2019 comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young UAE\u2008women have hit out at controversial comments encouraging Emirati men to take more than one wife.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Federal National Council (FNC)\u2008member Ahmad Al Amash said earlier this week, during governmental discussions, that the reluctance of Emirati men to take a second wife was creating \u201ca financial burden on the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that many men were unwilling to take a second wife due to financial costs involved \u2013 but that instead created \u201ca bigger problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt increases spinsterhood in the country,\u201d a UAE newspaper reported FNC member Al Amash as saying. But 25-year-old UAE government employee Hinaya Al Ameri insisted: \u201cI would never be a second wife. I would not because of every natural instinct in me as a woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how old I get I do not think I would ever accept it.\u201d Al Ameri said that every woman had the right to decide if she wanted to become a second wife \u2013 but it was only fair that her rights are protected. \u201cIf a woman wants to be the second wife, it is her choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not judge her as I cannot put myself in her place,\u201d she said. Emirati male Salman Al Zarei, also 25,
\nwondered why men were being asked to solve the problem of unmarried women.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple wives is something that older generations did but is becoming really difficult now,\u201d\u2008the TV\u2008director said.
\n\u201cNot (just) for financial reasons but bringing up one family is hard enough and comes with a whole set of problems and responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI do not see why we as Emirati men should bear the burden of spinsterhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another 25-year-old, female researcher Fatima Nasser, said that a regulation for polygamy \u2013 the taking of more than one wife or husband \u2013 needs to be implemented before other regulations are introduced.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolygamy should be regulated and only allowed for special situations to ensure that one is not abusing this privilege,\u201d Nasser, who similarly said she would not want to be a second wife, commented.<\/p>\n

In Islam a man is entitled to marry up to four wives. However, there is fierce debate both at a scholarly and societal level in which situations it should be implemented. Asked about further comments Al Amash made \u2013 that housing allowances should be increased for Emiratis with more than one wife \u2013 Afra Al Basti, FNC member and chairman of the Dubai foundation for women and children, said it \u201ccould solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the National Bureau of Statistics in 2010 there are 479,109 Emirati males and 468,888 national females in the UAE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young UAE\u2008women have hit out at controversial comments encouraging Emirati men to take more than one wife. Federal National Council (FNC)\u2008member Ahmad Al Amash said earlier this week, during governmental discussions, that the reluctance of Emirati men to take a second wife was creating \u201ca financial burden on the country\u201d. He said that many men …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[497,349,428,163,496,348],"class_list":["post-8527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis","tag-emirati","tag-middle-east-2","tag-polygamy","tag-ticker","tag-uae","tag-world-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8529,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8527\/revisions\/8529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}