One of the professors asked me if I know how many men in Pakistan practice polygmy or where he can find such information about Pakistan & countries to it’s west.
I told him I have no idea but promised to get back to him. So, can anyone help me out with this?
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my neighbor is pakistani and he has 2 wives living near each other.
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Um, most people I know on a personal level who are polygamous usually have reasons beyond the western perception of harems & hormones.
Anyway, I think in Pakistan a large number of poor and rich have multiple wives, either for tradition or money/power. I say no more than 5% of Pakistan's population is polygamous.
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like what? visa reasons? 
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No.
One family friends of ours was married to a woman who he had never met. He is PhD who studied & lived in England for quiet some time, teaches at a top Paki university and has a very socially liberal lifestyle. She is matric-pass and the first time she ever lived in the city was when she married him. On top of that after a few years they found out that she cannot have children. Well, he could have easily divorced her and married someone else, a practice more socially acceptable in serially monogamous cultures, but that would mean she has to go back to village where no one will marry her and will be on her fathers income and afterwards will have to rely on her brothers & sisters and die a very lonely life. Instead he went into a polygamous arrangement where he married someone a little more inclined to his concept of life and had children. The two wives live in a duplex and the children call the first wife 'bari ammi' and respect her like an elder. She takes interest in their lives as well.
The other example is that of the person who used to take care of the garden in front of our apartments. He went home to attend the funeral of his elder brother who had died in an accident and then extended his leave for another few months. We later found out that he married his widowed sister-in-law who was at least 10-15 years older than him. Trust me, he didn't do it for money or sex.
Mostly rich in Pakistan marry for stereotypes associated with polygamy in western culture.
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Polygamy is much much much more common than 5% ahmadjee. Way more common. I don't know about stats about it but I'd put the figure much much higher than 5%. 10% would be my minimum guessimate. You have to remember that PAKISTAN is much bigger than our own social circles.
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Irem, my guesstimate was based on the number of polygamous people in Pakistan I know + padded to be on the safe side.
What is your 10% number based on?
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It was very common about two generations ago where I come from, I don't think there was any man in my family who'd only have one wife but nowadays there's usually a reason behind it, the main one being what ahmadjee mentioned, when a brother dies the other brother marries his ‘sister’-in-law (hate that word), provides for her and brings up all her children like his own.
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True.
My pardada married four times. And I can speculate that his father did the same. I always attributed it to the fact that they were farmers and farmers can always use some help in the farm. Currently, I don't have anyone in a polygamous arrangement in my immediate family, only friends I know.
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ahmadjee many people I know (including my papa ji) are married twice. Thus the guesstimate.
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Irem i think 10% is too much. In my family, including people that still live in the village, i think there might be two men that have two wifes. But when you hear stories of older people, then even my grand father had two wifes. I would say right now its probably less than 5 % and in the next few years it will be even lesser than what it is right now.
But then again, we dont know what is going on in many villiages. So its all guess work.
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proudpakistani its definitely more of a trend in the villages, atleast in Punjab, and SPECIALLY in the Seraiki belt (Multan, Bhawalpur etc) I don't know if there is that much of a trend of polygamy in Sarhadis, you're from Abbottabad.
Hmmm....Don't know, can't say for sure.
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I think my mamoo was at one point before he divorced his first wife. My father's grandfathers has two wives as well. One married because he fell in love with another woman. I don't know the other one's reasons.
Irem, your dad has two wives?
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Sarah yup.
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Ah acha, that's great :) I won't bug you with personal questions :p I haven't had the chance to interact with someone who has had more than one mother, but I'm so curious about so many things! hehe
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Sarah you can always PM me about anything you want to ask :)
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Okay a sorta dumb question, but polygamy is when the man is legally married to two women living under the same roof, sharing lives etc,, right? Divorcing one wife, and marrying antoher one does not count as polygamy? coz if the latter also counts as polygamy then i think ten percent is WAY too low...
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Sara just being married to more than one person at the same time. The more than one wives don't have to live under the same roof.
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Sara, what you described is called serial monogamy.
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okay so bottom line divorce/re-marriage dont count as polygamy then