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How does Druze society, mainly still patrilineal and patriarchal, react to the ban on polygamy, adapted to the nuclear family and relying on both religious-ethical and secular-penal sanctions? The wording of the religious-legal ban suggests that it was imposed from above on a society in which polygamy was an accepted norm.

The application of this ban seems to have encountered difficulties in the past: some regarded it as an infliction the community could not endure, and when the gap between the religious-legal norm and social reality became too wide to be bridged, the norm was superseded by custom. According to one tradition, polygamy prevailed among the Druzes resident in Muslim villages of the Levant until the days of Shaykh 'Abd Allah al- Tanukhi (d.885/1480), the greatest of the late Druze commentators, and in order to eradicate this phenomenon he conducted a campaign of religious awakening among those Druzes, succeeding in persuading the wives in polygamous marriages to agree of their own free will to separate from their husbands so as to leave them with only one wife.[10] We probably have to do here with an attempt at idealization, for the motivation for polygamy in a patriarchal society was surely too strong, even without taking into account the influence of Muslim society or considerations of taqiyya , [11] to allow us to suppose that the problem was solved along religious-legal lines in so smooth and simple a manner.

At present, polygamy seems to be very rare among the Druzes. Shaykh Labib Abu Rukn, Qadi of the Druze Religious Court in Haifa, maintains that polygamy does not occur even in serious cases of barrenness and that if the husband wants to have children he will divorce the barren wife and take another wife instead; in fact the wife herself, even if she loves her husband; will urge him to divorce her in order to prevent a violation of the religious-legal ban. Shaykh Muhammad Ali Farhat and Shaykh Nayif Fandi Abu Salih, the Qadis of the Druze Religious Court of the Golan Heights, remember no instance of polygamy on the Heights.[12] 'Afifa Sa'b, a Lebanese fighter for the liberation of women, notes with satisfaction that the Druze woman is free of the threat of polygamy; that her husband cannot infringe her exclusive status by dividing his affections among several wives; that she no longer feels herself to be a concubine or an object of commercial dealings; that she has acquired self-confidence and devotes her energies to her husband, her children and her home; and that the husband, for his part, has learnt to accept and adapt himself to the monogamous form of marriage.[13]

It seems that this idyllic picture, though essentially correct, does not always reflect the day-to-day reality of Druze society in Israel and on the Golan Heights. There is evidence, though not much, in the sijills (registers of court decisions) of polygamy and of the fear of it as the portion of Druze women. In several cases, a woman stated in court, at the hearing of some claim or other, that her husband had deserted her and married (tazawwaj) another woman, in a manner contrary to shar'i or secular law, and had gone to live with her in another locality. In one of these cases, the woman in question was a Jew. Although we cannot say with certainty that these are cases of polygamy, this possibility is heightened by several indications in the decisions. Thus, e.g., in one case, the court directed referring the complaint to the police for it to investigate whether an offence against the law prohibiting bigamy had been committed.[14]

In another case, although the court of first instance and the court of appeal categorically declared that the second marriage had been concluded in contravention of the law prohibiting bigamy, they seem to have had in mind a purely technical offence. The mukhtar of the village (on the Golan Heights) explained that the man had married a second wife before giving his divorced first wife what was due to her and before the talaq had been confirmed by the (religious) court. The man, for his part, stated that he had taken the second wife "in order that she might live with him in mut'a," a marriage of enjoyment for a limited period, and might bring up his children. The witnesses for the wife confirmed that the man had married (tazawwaj) a second wife and that she in his house, but they could not say with certainty whether this marriage (zawaj) was legal (qanùnt) or not. [15] Mut'a marriages, recognized by the Ithna' Ashrr Shr'a, have a foothold among the Sunnites as well, and this perhaps explains why the Ottoman legislator took the trouble to convert mutt’a and temporary marriages from invalid (batil) into irregular (fasid) ones, which, if consummated, are not very different in their legal effect from valid (sahih) marital unions. The presence of an 'Alawi population on the Golan Heights may have been instrumental in this Institution being adopted by the Druzes either by assimilation or by way of taqiyaa .[16] In a further case, the husband's father confirmed that his son lived with another woman in a certain place, although it is not expressly stated that he had married her.[17] Sheikh Lablab Aba Rukn says that the religious-legal ban on polygamy has become general and is only infringed under compelling circumstances (bi-'amil idtirari) which he does not specify, and all the cases concerned involve the marriage of a non-Druze woman in addition to the lawful Druze wife.[18]

But in many other cases, the wife's allegation that her husband had married another woman was a mere suspicion based on hearsay, although even this was sufficient for her to be concerned about her status. It seems that what was really involved was extra-marital sexual relations or the keeping of a second woman as a reputed wife, with all that this implies, while disregarding the legal wife, with holding her maintenance, and the like. Things are usually done in secret, especially if the other woman is a non-Druze, but sometimes the man brings her to his house and expels his legal wife from it, to whom he may have been married for decades and who may have borne him many children. Under such circumstances, the legal wife sometimes demands that her husband divorce her.[19]

These cases attest that the motivation for polygamy still exists in the Druze community in spite of the religious-legal ban. Disregard of this ban is an offence entailing a religious-ethical sanction and social ostracism.[20] Extra-marital intercourse is regarded as a deviation from traditional modest ways and as adultery (zina), which, in turn, is a ground for judicial dissolution also on the initiative of the wife. [21] But it seems that even the penal sanction of the Knesset does not act as a deterrent. No instance is known of a Druze being brought to trial for infringing the ban on polygamy.[22]

It seems paradoxically, that the influence of Israeli society, which strives to improve the status of women and to equalize their rights with those of men and which for this purpose has forbidden polygamy, has perhaps harmed more than helped Druze women in this sphere. The acquisition of a modem, rational outlook through a secular education, military service and commuting of manpower to urban centers have significantly weakened among the Druzes the deterrent effect of the religious-ethical sanction applicable to polygamous marriages. The Knesset has provided a legal and normative legitimation for keeping a second woman without marriage. The statutorily recognized position of the reputed wife is a modem structural solution for polygamous inclinations and may in several respects be more convenient than the traditional structural solution of "successive polygamy," which requires divorcing the older woman in order to marry a younger one; [23] it has some of the advantages of polygamy without several of its disadvantages.[24] Lastly, physical severance from traditional society by moving to town makes it possible for a man to realize his wishes as to polygamy or an extramarital relationship with comparative ease, since he is far beyond the reach of the religious and social sanctions that threaten him in his home village. Ostracism and excommunication have no meaning under these circumstances.