A coalition of 12 Malaysian women's groups on Sunday launched a campaign against polygamy following recent moves by some states to ease restrictions for Muslim men to take a second wife.
Most Muslim men here are generally allowed to marry up to four wives, providing they have authorisation from their existing wives.
But Muslim women's groups were enraged when last year the government of northern Perlis state, bordering Thailand, announced it would allow Muslim men to marry again without the consent of the first wife.
The northeast state of Terengganu also plans to ease the process of taking on a second wife for its legislators by issuing them with undated letters authorising them to do so at any time.
Zainah Anwar, director of Sisters-In-Islam, said the coalition wanted to spread the message that polygamy was not the norm in a Muslim marriage and to encourage Muslim men to make a conscious commitment to monogamy.
She told AFP that official statistics showed that only five per cent of Muslim marriages in the country were polygamous but estimated the figure to be nearly 20 per cent.
"The catalyst for this campaign arose from the Perlis announcement to welcome men to practice polygamy there without any restrictions and the growing sense that polygamy is a right in Islam," she said.
Citing the Prophet Muhammad as an example, she said he was faithful to his first wife for 25 years and that his polygamous marriages after her death were to widowed or divorced women for political and tribal reasons.
"Our position is that polygamy is not an absolute right in Islam. Monogamy is the norm," she added.
Muslims make up 60 per cent of Malaysia's 23 million people. To skip strict Shariah regulations demanding they receive permission from their wives before marrying again, many Muslim men have quietly taken on other wives across the border in neighbouring Thailand.
The "Campaign for Monogamy" was backed by Endon Mahmood, the wife of Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
"Polygamy all too often destroys the happiness of a marriage and family, and implications for the children involved are almost always ignored," she said when launching the campaign at a shopping mall in a Kuala Lumpur suburb.
"The love between me and my husband, even after nearly forty years of marriage, grows stronger every day. Monogamy is the choice for my family."
Zainah said leaflets, booklets and car stickers would be distributed to raise awareness.
She urged the authorities to speed up divorce proceedings for Muslim women and urged the government to set up a national register of Muslim marriages and divorces to allow women to ascertain the status of their prospective husbands. There is now only a register for non-Muslim marriages.