Is Polygamy Slavery for Women?

Israeli authorities have been looking for ways to arrest polygamist cult leader Goel Ratzon since 2000, when they first discovered he was living with and controlling dozens of wives and children. But they had no law under which to bring him in. That is, until a creative cop decided that Israel's law against human trafficking and enslavement could apply to Ratzon.

Whether or not that particular law can be used to prosecute this particular case is still under investigation, but it sets precedent for the argument that polygamy is a form of human trafficking. So, is polygamy slavery?

To answer that question, let's start by looking at some of the information from the Ratzon case. Ratzon supposedly lives with his 32 "wives" and 89 children, though Israel does not recognize polygamist marriages. Investigators claim he has a book of house rules and fines his wives for breaking any of them. However, Ratzon says he never enforces the fines, and some of the women have defended the book as nothing more than practical guidelines for a large household. All of the women have Ratzon's name tattooed on their arms, and all of the children are named with derivatives of Ratzon's name. Ratzon is being kept away from cameras because investigators fear he will instruct his wives to kill themselves or their children, but several have already threatened to do so independently. A couple women have filed complaints of rape and sexual offenses, but most have supported him.

It's certainly a system of significant inequality, but are these women and children slaves? On one hand, this case presents a number of common indicators of servile marriages or slavery, like the tattoos of Ratzon's name and an internal system of enforceable rules (which I bet includes that the wives must remain faithful to Ratzon while he can "marry" whomever he chooses). The fear that Ratzon could instruct his wives to harm themselves or others over a camera is a huge indication of unhealthy psychological coercion in a relationship. On the other hand, only a couple of Ratzon's many wives have given any indication they are unhappy with the arrangement or not free to leave. And while a rule book with fines may seem draconian, I know several families who've had swear jars, where you pay a quarter if you accidentally let an expletive fly. Are the two so different?

Very real situations of slavery exist in polygamist communities -- young girls forced into marriage, women forced to work or not allowed to leave their situation -- all over the world. But there also are women who claim to voluntarily choose a polygamist lifestyle. Are they all brainwashed, under the coercive control of a Goel Ratzon who can instruct them to kill their children with a secret sign on a television camera? Or are they just choosing to live in a way most of us don't understand and don't agree with?

The answer lies somewhere between those two extremes. Yes, polygamy is a system built on deep inequality where coercive control, psychological abuse, and slavery can easily flourish unchecked. But when we deem all polygamy slavery, we confuse two distinct, if overlapping, issues. A nuanced understanding of how polygamy, freedom, and slavery interact is much harder to come by than a knee-jerk reaction to either defend these women's "free choices" or condemn the lifestyle as innately abusive. But in the end, reaching that nuanced understanding will help us continue to promote a world in which freedom and equality are within the reach of all women.

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