Polygamy in Morocco

Polygamous marriage in Morocco is not a common practice due to its many pre-

requisites that need to be fulfilled. The law that governs ‘polygamous marriage’ in Morocco is

a provision called The Moroccan Family Code (Moudawana) 2004.

Article 41 of the provision laid out several circumstances regarding polygamous

marriage where Polygamy is allowed except on some circumstances which are i) The wife

stipulates the condition in the marriage contract that her husband will not take another wife; ii)

when there is risk in equity between the wives.1 Regarding the first circumstance, it is quite

clear that the provision means that if the wife and the husband stipulated at the time of teir

marriage (during or before aqd/ijab & qabul) that the husband should only marry her alone and

will not marry anyone else except her, then that promise should remain and can’t be breached.

On the other hand, the second circumstance is quite more difficult to be explained compare to

the first as the term risk in equity itself is quite vague. However, equity can be explained

similarly like justice in the Al Qur’an Surah An-Nisa verse 3, which stated “if you fear that

you will not be able to do justice then marry only one…” 2Justice in this context refers to the

outward matter such as justice in providing maintenance (nafkah), justice in conjugal relations,

which is, taking turn with the wives and justice in the place of dwelling. 3 Therefore, equity in

the provision serves the same meaning with justice in the quranic verse mentioned above.

Furthermore, by virtue of the same provision under Article 414, it states that the court

will not authorize any polygamous marriage if the man does not have any exceptional and

objective justification, and if the man does not have sufficient resources to support both

families and guarantee all his obligations as a husband to both of the wives and families. This

1
Article 40 of the Moroccan Family Code (Moudawana) 2004
2
The Qur’an, An-Nisa (4):3
3
Najibah Mohd Zin et al., Islamic Family Law in Malaysia (Selangor Darul Ehsan: Sweet & Maxwell, 2016) 59
4
Article 41 of The Moroccan Family Code (Moudawana) 2004
article serves to further strengthen/elaborate what is stated under Article 40 which talks about

equity. Meaning that, in order to perform the act of polygamous marriage, the husband should

be justice/equity towards the wives and also the families both in financial form (nafkah batin)

and physical (nafkah batin) form.

There was also a case pertaining to this matter that happened in the region of Temsia,

which is located near Agadir, Southern Morocco, where a man and the second-wife-to-be were

arrested after the man’s first wife found out about the husband’s plan of polygamous marriage

and then lodged a complaint to the local prosecutor. 5

There was also case during prophet Muhammad’s time where the Prophet did not allow

Ali bin Abi Talib to commit a polygamous marriage upon Fatimah bint Muhammad (Prophet’s

daughter) when Ali wanted to marry Abu Jahl’s daughter, Prophet rejected the marriage by

stating “Fatimah is a part of me, and whatever hurts her, hurts me.” This caused Ali to abandon

his proposal towards Abu Jahl’s daughter and the marriage did not take place. Therefore, the

government of Morocco which is the authoritative body has the right to make such laws, as

long as it does not go against the basic root of Islam/Syari’ah law and in this case, limiting

polygamy with several circumstances does not go against the teaching of Islam as something

similar had also occurred during the Prophet’s time (Referring to the above case of Prophet’s

daughter and her husband)

5
Erin Geneva, Morocco: Polygamous Man Arrested On night of His Second Wedding,
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/05/130995/morocco-polygamous-man-arrested-on-night-of-his-
second-wedding/ (May, 2014)