Elite Malay women’s polygamy narratives are multiple and varied, and their sentiments regarding the practice are conflicted, as they are often torn between personal and religious convictions. This volume explores the ways in which this increasingly prominent practice impacts Malay gender relations. As Muslims, elite Malay women may be forced to accept polygamy, but they mostly condemn it as women and wives, as it forces them to manage their lives and loves under the “threat” of polygamy from a husband able to marry another woman without their knowledge or consent; a husband that is married but available.

Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen is Curator in Modern History and World Cultures at the National Museum of Denmark. She has done extensive research on polygyny in Muslim Southeast Asia and among Mormon fundamentalists in North America, and currently explores polyandry in the Himalayas. Her previous publications include Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis (Bloomsbury, 2008).

精英马来妇女的一夫多妻制叙述是多种多样的，她们对这种做法的情绪是矛盾的，因为她们经常在个人和宗教信念之间纠结。本书探讨了这种日益突出的做法对马来人性别关系的影响方式。作为穆斯林，马来精英女性可能被迫接受一夫多妻制，但作为女性和妻子，她们大多谴责这种做法，因为它迫使她们在一夫多妻制的 "威胁 "下管理自己的生活和爱情，因为丈夫能够在她们不知情或不同意的情况下与另一个女人结婚；丈夫是已婚的，但可以利用。

米利亚姆-科克特韦加德-泽岑是丹麦国家博物馆的现代历史和世界文化馆馆长。她对东南亚穆斯林的一夫多妻制和北美摩门教原教旨主义者的一夫多妻制进行了广泛的研究，目前正在探索喜马拉雅山的一夫多妻制。她以前的出版物包括一夫多妻制。A Cross-Cultural Analysis》（Bloomsbury, 2008）。