Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/111

 Rh it. As a matter of fact, since Turkey lias abolished polygamy, and sentiment is growing against it in other countries as well, the practice is becoming discredited in the countries where the rule of the Koran prevails, and the evidence goes to show that plural marriages are on the decrease among Moslems today. As Western education spreads in Moslem lands there is little doubt that the harem system will die out, that monogamy will tend to supplant polygamy, and that thus a gradual improvement in the home life will result.

The divorce problem is a very real one in Islam, as it is in Christian lands. Just as man has the greater freedom in the matter of social life and in marriage, so he has had a larger freedom than woman in the matter of divorce. And divorce in Islam for the man has been a comparatively simple matter. One Moslem writer confesses with shame that in some quarters there is a tendency for men to divorce their wives as they would cast off their old clothes. They simply invoke the sanction of Islamic law, declare three times in the presence of the wife, "I divorce you," and that is the end of it. There is in such cases no legal inquiry; no proof of misconduct on the part of the woman is required. The man may do as he pleases. "Legally, he should give her a sum of money equal to one-third of her dowry, but frequently she is unable to get this. Her only recourse is to go back to her