[oman-l] Oman grants women right of divorce

[Joachim Duester]

Thanks to Cecile for posting the UPI article on divorce 
laws to the Oman list.  I should like to challenge the 
statement by UPI

>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 25 (UPI) -- 
>[...]
>It  is not uncommon for Omani men to have more than one wife, as
>Islam allows them four. 

on the basis of the results of the "1993 General Census 
of Population, Housing and Establishments" published by
the Ministry of Development. I quote from the report (pp. 47 -
48):

"The figures indicate that 93.2 % of the total married Omani 
males have one wife, while only 6.8 % had more than one wife 
at the time of the census.  [...] The percentage of polygamy 
cases rises with the increase in age. Around 1.9 % of young 
married men less than 30 years of age have more than one wife. "

These figures show that polygamy is the exception, not the rule.

The new law apparently povides for a universal application of 
the principle of  tafwid, which is not new in Islamic law.  

Joachim Duester
Oman Studies Centre