"Women's Rights Or Multiculturalism: Pick One."
03/23/2007
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

That's Ann Althouse's reaction to this story about West African polygamy in New York, and the New York City authorities ''Don't-ask-don't-know policies " on the issue. They're too multicultural to care, and New York is a sanctuary city, anyway. Althouse adds that "Either there is equal justice under the law or there is not." But of course none of this would be happening in New York but for the Immigration Act of 1965.

 “The woman is in effect the slave of the man,” said a stylish Guinean businesswoman in her 40s who, like many women interviewed in Harlem and the Bronx, spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If you protest, your husband will hit you, and if you call the police, he’s going to divorce you, and the whole community will scorn you.”

“Even me,” she added. “My husband went to find another wife in Africa, and he has the right to do that. They tell you nothing, until one afternoon he says, ‘O.K., your co-wife arrives this evening.’ ”

™[In Secret, Polygamy Follows Africans to N.Y. , By Nina Bernstein, March 23, 2007]
Print Friendly and PDF