Ajman baby farm

Ajman's infamous one-man breeding initiative Daad Mohammed Murad rears his head again, this time in 7Days. Contrary to previous reports, he is only on his eleventh wife, though is about to take a twelfth. There is also no reference to four spouses dying, mentioned in earlier reports, something which seemed considerably unfortunate given the UAE's excellent healthcare.

"Already head of the largest family in the UAE, Daad Mohammed Murad Abdul Rahman is about to marry for the twelfth time. Daad, 57, has 68 children by his first 11 wives, with two more on the way. A near-fatal road accident may have cost him one leg, but it has done nothing to dampen his spirits."

Daad's reasons for so many wives and kids are far from compelling. He wants to "remove the demographic imbalance" of Asian expatriates - despite the fact that eight out of his first eleven wives are Asian. He wants them to act as a defence "in case of any foreign invasion." And he wants to get into the Guiness Book of Records. But perhaps most unpleasantly:

"Daad relies on his wives to do much of the housework, so he says he needs to replace them when they get too old.

"When one woman became weak, another strong one had to be brought in to manage the home.""

The fate of the women he divorces is also not mentioned. The print edition of 7Days reveals his wives to include five Indians, two Pakistanis, two Bedouins, a Bangladeshi and an Omani. The "generosity of the emirate's ruler" not withstanding, how exactly is Daad providing alimony - obligatory in Islam - to his many exes? Rent is hardly cheap in the UAE. Who do their children live with and who looks after them? Does he repatriate the divorcees?

Daad may well be an excellent father. But a woman whose only role is to do housework and breed children, and be "replaced" when she becomes "too old", is frankly little more than a concubine. Islamic scholars may correct, but this family structure hardly seems to be in the spirit of what the Prophet recommended.