E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 34 (g) Polygamy 127. The purpose of this study is not to open a debate and less still pass religious judgment on polygamy.170 Its more pragmatic objective, which is situated in the context of respect for human rights, is to survey different categories of Muslim and non-Muslim countries. In some States, polygamy, despite being illegal, is still practised without judicial or social sanctions.171 In other States having different religious traditions, it is practised in accordance with the law or with what is regarded as the law or with ancient cultural traditions.172 In other States, although recognized by law, it is an outdated or abandoned practice.173 In yet other States, not only is polygamy forbidden but the ban on it has fully entered the dominant popular culture.174 128. Such variety demonstrates that those countries, although all Muslim, have very different attitudes from each other on the same issue and thus do not have a single conception of Islam and Muslims. Local customs, cultural attitudes and affirmative State policy shape a particular stance on a practice that may appear to have an exclusively religious basis. This shows that, as stated in the introduction, it is possible not to remain a prisoner of cultural realities and to adopt measures to confront them, taking account of each country’s local context and of religious precepts. 129. Polygamy, even in its religious dimension, is an exceptional practice intended to deal with exceptional situations.175 In the Koran, for example, it is neither instituted nor recommended. The holy text, while constituting a significant reformist achievement in limiting abuses of the time, simply permits polygamy and makes it subject to conditions which are so difficult to fulfil that one may argue that there is an implicit yet marked preference for monogamy.176 Albert Samuel rightly maintains that it is tradition, more than the Koran and Islam, which confines Arab women to their subordinate position.177 Also, polygamy is not specific to any one religion. It is believed to have existed and may still exist in societies with Christian, Jewish and animist religious traditions in Africa and Asia.178 The right to polygamy also appears to be asserted by new religions in the name of freedom of privacy.179 Some authors even consider that decriminalization of adultery in some societies is a form of de facto recognition of polygamy.180 130. Polygamy violates women’s human rights and infringes their right to dignity.181It can give rise to practices that are injurious only to women. That is true of repudiation in Islam, which is pronounced solely by the husband, in accordance with the custom prevailing in Arab society. Yet Islam acknowledges that marriage is a contract which binds two equally committed partners.182 (h) Abortion and control over family planning 131. In many States and a wide variety of cultures, abortion is viewed as contrary to tradition and deemed an unlawful act admitting of no exception, even when involving the preservation of the mother’s life or health or in cases of rape or incest.183 In other States, abortion, although legal, is subject to restrictive laws.184 Here again, cultural traditions dictate a particular legal position. As with polygamy, countries may have the same religion and take different positions on abortion. That applies to Tunisia, which very early on adopted legislation sympathetic to voluntary termination of pregnancy, contrary to certain other Muslim countries,185 while in Islam there are no specific prescriptions on the matter and doctrinal controversy is ongoing.186