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Rising incomes mean many Iraqi men marry multiple wives

Polygamy is growing among Iraqis as the men who indulge in it cite both progressive and Islamic justifications.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY BRYAN PEARSON
(FILES) A file picture dated 04 January 2007 shows an Iraqi bride preparing to go to her wedding party in Baghdad. Yassir and Sara (not pictured) plan 03 September 2007 to get married in Baghdad after Ramadan but don't spread the word. It could get them killed. There'll be no convoys of decorated cars, no stopping for wedding photographs, no all-night party with hundreds of friends in a hired hall, no fanfare, no fireworks -- nothing to draw the unwanted attention of bo
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BAGHDAD — Hashem (a pseudonym), told Al-Monitor, “I married a widow who works as a schoolteacher and lives in the city of Karbala. I did so because I needed a woman from the same academic and cultural background as mine, as I was fed up with my illiterate wife.”

Hashem said that he graduated from the Arabic department at the University of Baghdad in 1982 and then married his cousin while living in the countryside on the outskirts of Baghdad.

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