Career-driven Muslim women in Britain have recently resorted to polygamous marriages due to a lack of “suitable men” to fit their busy working lives.
According to the Islamic Shariah Council, some of the successful women have happily chosen to become the second or third wives to married men.
The British-based charity offers legal advice to Muslims and has stated it is receiving a high volume of queries from women finding difficulties with finding a suitable spouse.
The majority of the women say they would prefer to hold down well-paid jobs rather than look after their husbands full-time.
Having more than one wife is illegal in the UK but Muslim men marry again by having a nikah as opposed to a British marital registration, allowing them to have up to four wives.
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Mizan Raja, 35, who organises Muslim marriages around the world, told the Sunday Times that he has had hundreds of calls in the past six months from women asking about becoming second or third wives.
Mr Raja said: “The demand for these relationships is led by the women, not the men. In one generation women have become educated, entrepreneurial and professional.
“The Muslim community is struggling with this, how do you cope with women who wear trousers?”
He said that most Muslim men desired a “homemaker” and to come home to a clean house and food on the table.
He added the men didn’t want the “headache” of being in a marriage with a career-driven woman.
It has also become a reality that Muslim women are actively seeking out married men because they do not want the chore of having to cook for their husbands after a hard day at the office and are quite happy to have “part-time” marriages with limited responsibilities
It is roughly estimated that around 12,000 brides are brought into Britain by Muslim men, usually from South-East Asia.
The decline in “available” husbands has become such a problem it is now referred to as the “Muslim spinster crisis” by some commentators.
