A Muslim woman seeks justice rather than equality, since equality with man causes her to lose many of her rights and a great deal of her distinctions. Let us assume that someone has two sons at the age of five and eighteen. He wants to buy each of them a shirt. Equality, in this case, means buying them shirts of the same size, which means that one of them will have to suffer. On the other hand, justice here means buying each of them a shirt with the size that fits him, the thing that will make everybody happy.
Nowadays women try to prove that they can do whatever men do. In reality; however, this causes them to lose their uniqueness and distinction, as Allah has created the woman to do what man cannot do. It has been proven that labor pains are among the most severe pains that could be experienced by a human being. Religion came to bestow on women the honor they deserve in return for such exhaustion, and to grant them the right of not being responsible for financial maintenance or work and of being fully entitled to their own property without having to share it with their husbands like what happens in the West. Although Allah has not given man the ability to endure labor pains, yet He has given him the ability to climb mountains for instance.
If a woman, wishes to climb a mountain and work hard and claims she can do this exactly like man, she may do so; however, at the end she will be the one who gives birth to children as well, and she will be the one responsible for caring and breastfeeding them as man cannot do this in all cases. So, she will be forced to double her efforts although she had the chance to avoid this from the beginning.
What is unknown to many is that if a Muslim woman claims her rights through the United Nations, giving up her rights in Islam, the loss will be all hers because she enjoys much more rights in Islam. Islam achieves integration that man and woman have been created for and this fulfills happiness for all.
According to global statistics, the male and female birth rates are almost equal. However, it is scientifically acknowledged that the rates of females' survival are higher than those of males. Moreover, in wars more men get killed than women. It is also scientifically proven that the average age of females is bigger than that of men which, consequently, leads to increasing the rate of widows globally than that of widowers. Thus, women will come to constitute the majority of the world population and that is why it is not practically appropriate to restrict every man to one wife.
In societies where polygamy is legally forbidden, we find it common for men to have mistresses and several intimate relations out of wedlock, which is an implicit, yet illegal, approval of polygamy. This was a predominant phenomenon before Islam, and Islam came to rectify this situation and preserve the woman's rights and dignity, turning her from a mistress to a self-respecting wife, enjoying her and her children's rights.
It is quite astonishing that these societies find no trouble in accepting affairs out of wedlock, or even same-sex marriages, and accepting relationships void of clear responsibilities, as well as accepting fatherless children. However, such societies can by no means accept a legal marriage between a man and more than one woman. Islam, on the other hand, shows great wisdom in this regard and clearly permits man to practice polygamy, for the sake of preserving the woman's dignity and rights, so long as he has less than four wives and the two conditions of justice and ability are met. Polygamy also aims at solving the problem of the woman who cannot find a single husband and has no choice except to get married to a married man or accept to be someone's mistress.
Despite the fact that Islam allows polygamy; yet, it is not true that a Muslim man is forced to marry more than one as some may believe.
Allah Almighty said:
{If you fear that you may not maintain justice with orphan girls [by marrying them] then marry women of your choice – two, three, or four; but if you fear that you may not maintain justice, then marry only one...} [208] Surat an-Nisā’: 3.
Actually, the Qur’an is the only religious book in the whole world that clarifies the fact that one must have only one wife in case the condition of justice cannot be met.
Allah Almighty said:
{You will never be able to maintain absolute justice between your wives, no matter how keen you are. So do not completely incline to one leaving the other in suspense. If you do what is right and fear Allah, Allah is surely All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.} [209] Surat an-Nisā’: 129.
In all cases, a woman is entitled to be her husband's only wife by mentioning such condition in the marriage contract, which is an essential and binding condition that must not be revoked.
One of the extremely important points that is often neglected by modern society is the right that Islam has granted women but not to men. Man can only marry unmarried women, whereas a woman can either marry a single or a married man and this is meant to guarantee the attribution of children to their real father and to protect the children's rights and their inheritance from their father. Islam allows a woman to be married to a married man provided that he has less than four wives and can fulfill the conditions of justice and ability. Thus, a woman is allowed a wider range of choices from among men and has the opportunity to learn how to deal with the co-wife and how to approach marriage while being aware of the morals of this husband.
Even if we assume the possibility of maintaining the children's right through the DNA test owing to the scientific advancement, what is the mistake of the children to deserve being introduced to their father through such a test? How would this affect their mental state? Moreover, how could one woman manage to be a wife to four men with such moodiness of hers?! All this along with the diseases that she could get as a result of her intimate relation with more than one man at the same time.