Love conquers all

Women's narratives on polygyny as an internal critique of intersecting patriarchies

Bibliographic Data

ID3607826
AuthorsAsuna Yoshizawa (0009-0009-8729-0488, Rikkyo University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume6
Issue2
Publication date2025-09-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2643-7961 • E-ISSN: 2643-7961
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/fea2.70016
OpenAlexW4414253772
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

This article unveils how gender inequality and colonial dichotomy became visible in the practice of polygyny among Muslim-Christian intermarried couples in the southern Philippines. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Iligan, it documents the lived experiences of Christian wives, Maranao Muslim women, and female Muslim converts. While Christian norms have long stigmatized Muslim polygyny, public discussions within Muslim societies in the Philippines have been limited. For women in inter-religious marriages, polygyny provokes painful negotiations that expose intersecting hierarchies of gender, religion, and ethnicity. They described their experiences in their own words, often diverging from the normative discourse, reconstructing the concepts of intimacy and reinterpreting religious teachings in ways that resonate with women in different ethnic and religious positions. Although interpretations and evaluations of polygyny are publicly fragmented by coloniality and normative discourses, these women's experiences reveal underlying alignment. The article argues that their stories constitute an internal critique of the intersecting patriarchies embedded in the Philippine state, Spanish and American forms of ongoing coloniality, and Muslim and Christian societies

American Constitutional Law and Politics · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment

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