I'm Damian Kerik

D'Amabari, I'm Damian Kerik

reporting from Malaysia for the BBC World Service

and ABC Australia for our shifting

cultures series where we're exploring how parts of the Asia Pacific region are

adapting their traditions and values to a fast-changing world.

And here in Malaysia there's an ongoing conversation among Muslims

about whether or not it's fair that a man can have up to four wives.

I already had my own career, I had my own life, so I thought that I don't mind being a weekend wife, you know, I don't need to have a husband 24-7, you know what I mean?

I'm definitely not for Polygumin, because I feel as a Muslim woman, although it is allowed in Islam.

I don't refute that.

But when you look at emotionally for a women,

there's no fairness.

Because if your husband cannot share their love among four women.

I'm a former lawyer and now a legal journalist and over the years I've done many stories

about family law in Australia and how it's changing. I've come to Malaysia,

a Muslim majority country that's multiracial, modern and economically vibrant because I'm curious

about how their separate legal system of Sharia law shapes the personal lives of Muslim Malaysians,

especially around polygamy, the practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time.

In Malaysia that means a man having more than one wife.

Polygamy is only practiced by a small minority of Muslim men here in Malaysia,

but it's an arrangement entered into by all sorts of people, some who lead very modern lives, like Tobin.

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