Polygamy

• Bloomington, IN

• May 30, 1976

Audio clip from a cassette tape recording at the 14th Annual Muslim Students Association convention held at Indiana University in 1976. 3 min.

Notes: This recording is from a workshop focused on women's issues. The first half is a lecture on modesty (i.e. hijab) delivered most likely by Dr. Ilham al-Talib, one of the first regular women speakers at MSA meetings. The second half is by well-known author and scholar, Dr. Jamal Badawi, on Polygamy. Badawi's lecture is a defense of the practice from its critics both within and outside the global ummah. The final question is asked by a Black Muslim woman in the audience who was not part of Badawi's audience. She is not concerned with theory but with practice. Like the companion of the Prophet Muhammad, Khawla, she is clear and direct with her petition: Women are being harmed, so how exactly is polgamy supposed to work? The tapes ends with a rushed incomplete answer and there is no further recording in Umi's archive.