An Egyptian member of parliament has filed a lawsuit against a female journalist over a newspaper article headed “My four husbands and I”.

Writing in the independent daily, al-Masri al-Youm (here, in Arabic), Nadine al-Bedair asked why Muslim men are allowed to have more than one wife, while women are not allowed more than one husband.

She ended the article by proposing that either polygamy/polyandry should be permitted for men and women alike, or there should be a new "map of marriage" to stop husbands using "boredom" as an excuse for taking more than one wife.

The article has brought predictable reactions from the usual suspects. Bikya Masr blog quotes one religious scholar, 
Sheikh Mohamed Gama’i, as saying that "no woman has the right to attack our traditions in this manner". 

However, Ms Bedair's complaints have also found some support. Sheikh Amr Zaki, who runs a mosque in downtown Cairo, said: “People should wake up and look at how women can be treated by their husbands and the fact that in our world today polygamy should be unacceptable. There is no need for it and besides, no man can truly love more than one woman and vice versa.”

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 19 December 2009.