New Delhi: Can Muslim men marry more than once? If you go by the letter and spirit of Islam, then it is possible, but Muslim women and girls oppose this very idea with contempt.

In a recent survey  conducted by Allama Rafi Trust on this issue, an educational organisation of the capital, reveals path breaking results on the. For the survey, 120 Muslim women and girls from Delhi and Western UP, were asked to comment on their views on bigamy.

Very surprisingly, except for just five women, all of them said that they do not approve that their husband, father or brother marries more than once. Of course, there was a rider that they can marry once again if their wife passed away.

According to the survey, only five women say that they would not mind if there husband re-marry without taking divorce from them. Noted educationist and president of the Allama Rafiq trust, Maqsood Ahmad said that they are really surprised with these results of their survey.

Meanwhile, according to a 1974 government survey on bigamous marriages in India, unlike the general perception, tribal account for around 14 percent of all bigamous marriages in India. Muslims are at the bottom with 5.6 percent of bigamous marriages while Hindus come a notch above them -- 5.8 percent.

Talking about the issue of a Muslim man having more than one wife, Islamic scholar and teacher, Firoz Bakhat Ahmad says that this issue has always divided the Indian Muslims. “I think bigamy is not against the spirit of Islam. But in India it is not practiced like Islamic countries," he asserted.