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Radiofarda – Come and enjoy our free training workshops for polygamy, a controversial Persian ad on Instagram invites users in Iran to try the service.
The ad shows a “happily smiling family”; a man, his four “cheerful” wives, and their three joyful children, waving flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The owner of the Instagram page is an entity called Watan Tohidi (Monotheistic Homeland)/ Hayat Hosna (Good Life), or WTHH.
WTHH, according to its website, was founded in 2011 by a group of “Islam-loving” individuals. However, it is not yet known who manages the company.
The entity also maintains that it operates in tandem with the Aftab-i Najaf Institute (the Sunshine of Najaf) in Iraq, to hold free cultural and matrimonial classes for the Shi’ites.
The aim of the institute is to provide facilities for Iranians and Iraqis who want to marry each other.
Furthermore, WTHH says it attempts to promote Islamic polygamy at local, national, and international levels.
WTHH has free training workshops and has so far two in the city of Isfahan, central Iran, and one in the capital city, Tehran.
An “unnamed” manager of WTHH says that psychology and religion professors deliver speeches on the “relevance” and the Islamic “precepts” concerning polygamy.
Meanwhile, WTHH teachers will mediate for qualified married men to marry their second wives.
Based on a controversial verse in Quran, male Muslims are allowed to have up to four wives.
Regardless of the ambiguities in verse, the Islamic jurists have unanimously agreed that it allows men to have more than one wife.
Nevertheless, it is said that the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is against polygamy.
The conservative Young Journalists Club (YJC), affiliated with the state-run television, run by a Khamenei appointee, in March 2018, cited him as saying that he was against having multiple wives.
YJC did not state the time and date of Khamenei’s comment, but it reported that his remark was “recent” and in response to a fatwa attributed to him that was circulating in cyberspace.
The alleged fatwa quoted Khamenei as saying that he views polygamy as “mustahab” (desirable) in the current situation of the Iranian society.
According to YJC, in an audience with Khamenei, one of the attendees asked him about the authenticity of this fatwa. Khamenei was furious and surprised, roaring, “I haven’t issued such a fatwa, and I don’t accept such a thing. Who has said this?”
Nevertheless, since the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader is vehemently in favor of population growth in Iran, many believe that WTHH is freely operating in Iran with his blessing.
Khamenei has repeatedly called for a population increase of up to 150 million.
In response to Khamenei’s wish President Hassan Rouhani has issued a four-point directive to the Ministers of Interior, Health, Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare explaining the Supreme Leader’s wishes concerning population growth.
