More then one wife in Egypt?

Question

Ok...if you are an arabic man and you marry 2 women in Egypt and then come to american with one of them....are you breaking the law in america? Since in America you can only have one wife how would this work.

This is not about me!!!!! I am argueing with a friend...lol~

I am a girl and I am happily married with an 8 year old....this is not really about anyone. I work with a know it all that loves to argue I am sure a lot of you can relate!

Answer 1

According to US law only one wife is legal wife in US.
Secular law in most western countries with large Jewish and Christian populations does not recognize polygamous marriages. However, few such countries have any laws against living a polygamous lifestyle: they simply refuse to give it any official recognition. Parts of the United States, however, criminalize even the polygamous lifestyle; these laws originated as anti-Mormon legislation, although they are rarely enforced. Polygamists may find it harder to obtain legal immigrant status.
Islamic religious authority discourage living in not Muslim countries.

Answer 2

You would be married, but I suspect you could only get one of them recognized as a legal wife here.

You can generally marry two or more people here, same genders can marry, or groups can marry. They just won't get recognized legally. There may be a few places (like Utah) where they actually have laws on the books against people who represent themselves as married to more than one person.

For the most part, bigamy laws were instituted to protect a spouse from their spouse marrying another without their knowledge. Later, it became more a way of keeping cultural norms (say when Utah wanted to enter the union).

Answer 3

My only question is...why would any man want 2 wives.

Double the aggravation
double the expense
and every month double the Bytchiness

Even double the sex isn't worth it to me.

I am sure that the first marriage would take precedence, the 2nd, is not an issue unless she decides to come to the U.S.

Your " Friend" may choose to get the 2nd marriage annulled just in case.

Answer 4

this is a very hypothetical question.
yes, it is against the US laws.