Muslim spinster crisis in UK

There was an article in the Sunday Times yesterday about professional Muslim women who were having trouble finding a suitable husband. The decline in available husbands has become such a problem, it is now referred to as the 'Muslim spinster crisis'.


According to the Islamic Sharia Council, some professional Muslim women were seriously considering becoming a second or third wife to an already married man. When given the choice of being a stay-at-home mum, minding the children and managing the home, they would much prefer to have a high profile job. And who could blame them? Taking more than one wife is illegal in the UK but men marry again in a nikah religious ceremony, allowing them to take up to four wives.


Mizan Raja, 35, who organises Muslim marriages around the world 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 most Muslim men wanted a 'homemaker' and didn’t want the ‘headache’ of being in a relationship with a professional woman.


Some career-minded women were looking for a man already married who had another wife to do all the mundane household chores - they were not prepared to start cooking a family meal after a hard day at the office. One woman who spoke to the Sunday Times had an affair with a married man after divorcing her first husband. When he offered to leave his wife, she preferred to become his second wife because she did not want him under her feet all the time.


Muslim men are still bringing brides from the ‘old country’ to the UK every year and are therefore relatively happy as they continue living their old way of life. Not so for the modern miss who has left the old country and its ideas well behind her.


So is the Muslim spinster crisis for real? Definitely not says one woman. “I'm a professional Muslim woman and also a doctor, I don't believe in polygamy, I don't believe in living off the benefit system and there are plenty of people like me, I'm sick to death of the stereotype that people use to judge all British Muslims. My religion doesn't define me, my forefathers culture is no part of my life, I accept the British culture, don't hate 'white' people and don't know any British Muslim woman who has become anyone's second or third wife! It's high time we got to see that there's plenty of 'normal' Muslim Brits!”


And as every year passes, I hope this attitude will continue to prevail.