(What in the World)
Add this twist to the panoply of websites that promise to fill the holes in your love life: sites that are aimed at married men who want to add wives, and single women who’d be happy sharing a spouse.
Certain that there were plenty of people who’d be interested in such a service — and willing to pay for it — Azad Chaiwala, a 33-year-old British entrepreneur of Pakistani origin, created what he said were the world’s first matchmaking sites for aspiring polygamists.
He started SecondWife.com, aimed specifically at Muslims, in late 2014, followed by Polygamy.com, which is open to anyone, this year.
The sites now have tens of thousands of members, Chaiwala said. Most registered users are in Britain or the United States, even though bigamy is a crime in both countries. But some members log in from India, Pakistan or other countries in Asia or Africa where it can be legal.
While he has no way to know how many polygamous marriages his sites may have facilitated, Chaiwala said he had received more than 100 letters from users thanking him for guiding them toward multiple-marital bliss.
Chaiwala speaks of his sites with an evangelist’s fervor, hoping to spread the idea that polygamy offers a pro-family antidote to promiscuity, prostitution, divorce and broken homes. He dismisses those who criticize polygamy as anachronistic, saying it is better than adultery or one-night stands facilitated by apps like Tinder.
“I am saying, ‘Marry two or three, and be loyal to them,'” he said.
Creating a profile on either site is free, but to browse profile photos, you need to upgrade to a paid membership of $20 (about R300) a month or $45 for three months.
Three-quarters of the users on SecondWife.com are men, Chaiwala said, but most of the profiles on Polygamy.com are posted by women. He guesses that many women don’t want the obligation of a full-time husband, or consider it a plus that a man is already married.
“If they are capable of taking care of one wife, perhaps they are capable of taking care of me,” Chaiwala said, speculating on what women might be thinking.
One thing the sites are not intended to do is to help women seek out multiple husbands - a practice known as polyandry. This is not because Chaiwala opposes the idea, he said, but because it is “not a viable business proposition.”