Performing Fairness in Polygynous Marriage: Material, Temporal, and Moral Economies of Justice among Urban Pakistani Men
Contributors
- Aysha Farooq Research Scholar, Department of Social Work, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Dr. Tahira Jabeen Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Abstract
Justice (ʿadl) is an ethical condition for Muslim family law, but how husbands define and apply justice is under-emphasised, as most studies document unequal outcomes and experiences between spouses. This article discusses how polygynous men transform the abstract demand for justice in a prosperous urban Pakistani context into everyday distributive practice. It is based on a qualitative phenomenological study of fifteen polygynous men in the Defence Housing Authority, Lahore whose accounts were collected using profound, semi-structured interviews and analysed with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, read by Role Theory and Social Exchange Theory. Men distinguished equality from equity and moved between strict parity and equity-foreseen logic; time was a moral currency governed by rotation, exceptions, and makeup regulations; and honesty was made manifest by micro rituals such as comparable gifts and documented publications. Justice was treated as fragile and fixable, leading to derailments justificatory repertoires of necessity, compensation, and religious accountability. The article further includes the concept of performative moral justice, which establishes honesty, looks at, tells, recovers, and takes into account implications for marriage supervision and family policy.
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Corresponding Author
Aysha Farooq
Research Scholar, Department of Social Work, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
