Ghulam is a taxi driver who lives in
Blackburn, a once-booming textile town in Lancashire. He has a terrace
house near his local mosque (one of 53 in the area), a silver Nissan car
and a very complex private life.
For
he has so many children that he struggles to remember their names, and
five wives from various countries, including Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and
his own birthplace, Pakistan.
Ghulam’s latest bride is a shy 20-year-old called Hafeza. He brought her to Britain from Morocco, soon after his 45th birthday earlier this year. They married in an Islamic wedding ceremony called ‘the Nikah’ in her village, with Hafeza’s pleased parents among the guests.
Thirty miles across the Pennines in Yorkshire, pizza delivery driver Wasim, 27, has an equally complicated domestic life.
He lives in a part of Dewsbury called Savile Town, a network of 11 terrace streets dominated by one of the biggest mosques in Europe, where most residents are Asian with origins in Pakistan or India.
Wasim has three wives, the first of whom lives with him and their three
teenage sons. His other two wives have separate houses in Savile Town,
one down the road and another round the corner. He visits each two
nights a week.
The women have had several of Wasim’s children and he hopes the youngest bride (aged 19) will soon present him with another baby.
I learned of Ghulam and Wasim this
week while investigating a subject that is taboo in politically correct
Britain. It is the huge rise of bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy
(more than two) in our Muslim communities.
The
issue was recently bravely highlighted by Baroness Flather, a
crossbench life peer who was herself born in Lahore, now part of
Pakistan.
She warned
the Lords (and also wrote an article for the Mail on the subject) about
how our shambolic benefits system is being exploited by men hailing from
Pakistan and other Muslim nations who indulge in multiple marriages —
with taxpayers forced to foot the bill.
As Baroness Flather explained: ‘The wives are regarded by the welfare system as single mothers, and are therefore entitled to a full range of lone parent payments.
'As a
result, several “families” fathered by the same man can all claim
benefits, as they are provided for by the welfare state, which treats
them as if they were not related,’
Lady
Flather also lamented the reluctance of politicians to address the
issue: ‘It is certainly difficult to discuss this phenomenon of serial
marriage and exploitation of the benefits system, with few people in
Britain seeming to want to confront the disturbing truth.’
Two
years ago, another peer, Baroness Warsi, born in Dewsbury to Pakistani
parents, and now a Coalition Cabinet Minister, also voiced her concerns.
She said cultural sensitivity was stopping politicians addressing the
problem.
Yet this week I found those — from within the heart of the Asian communities — who were prepared to speak out.
Although
the Government says there are only 1,000 such bigamous or polygamous
unions in the UK, two experienced Lancashire social workers — one of
Indian-English heritage and the other with Pakistani origins — told me
that, although it’s difficult to be precise, in their estimation the
figure is closer to 20,000.
The
social workers said the multiple marriages are encouraged by a welfare
system which allows a second, third or fourth wife to be treated as a
single mother who gets a house and an array of other state payments for
herself and her children.
Controversially, it means that a man can take a new spouse (from anywhere in the world), sire any number of children with her, and yet have no responsibility for this family’s upkeep or care.
To
avoid breaking Britain’s matrimony laws, the men marry their extra
‘wives’ in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, either in their own homes or a
mosque.
These
marriages are not recognised officially, so they do not appear in
government statistics or have any status under the law. They also do
not count when assessing welfare payments.
Another
technique is for a couple to marry legally under British law but then
divorce, leaving them then to have a Nikah ceremony and continue living
together. The woman will then be entitled to welfare payments as a
single mother and the man can then bring another woman from abroad and
legally marry her in Britain.
Men
also cheat the system by bringing brides from abroad as nannies for
their children, or as carers for a sick relative. The bride gets a
year’s visitors’ visa, disappears into a tight-knit local community, and
is entitled to receive welfare hand-outs.
While
it has long been a cliche for men to complain that their wives and
children take up most of their income, the reality for polygamous
husbands is that the more babies he sires, the more money pours in for
him and his wives.
As
Tariq Ali, the 45-year-old co-founder of Project BME (Black Minority
Ethnics), a charity based in Darwen, Lancashire, admits: ‘There are
thousands of bigamous and polygamous marriages in the UK’s Pakistani
community — the same community into which I was born.
'Every single man of my age who I bump into seems to have a third, fourth or fifth wife.
‘The issue is going unreported but in the Asian communities this is becoming a way of life. I think the number of polygamous relationships must be 20,000.
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