When Memes Rewrite the Law

“The High Court says men don’t need their wife’s permission for a second marriage.” 

“ From now on Bangladeshi men don’t need their first wife’s permission for a second marriage.”

“Men don’t need their wife’s permission for multiple marriages.”

You see where it’s going?

My social media feed has more of this content than Trump deciding to own Venezuela. Actually, these two topics might feel the same to those men who got really excited with this No Permission news. Trump doesn't take anyone’s permission to invade another country, then why would I need permission to have another wife? I can have four wives if I want, I’m a Muslim man, this is Sunnah.

Yes, a man who might not even pray the five times daily namaz, which are Fard (obligatory or mandatory) by the way, will definitely like to talk about this one single Sunnah. How would they miss this opportunity to have more than one partner? Not that all of them can actually have more than one wife but a man can dream. 

After minimum 100 memes from different pages and accounts, posts of almost two-third male friends or acquaintance from my social media where they were trying to be funny or tagged their wives, and floating comments of the very few people that I keep around me, I decided that enough is enough and went to figure out why the Bangladesh High Court has suddenly decided to give our beloved men this fruit of heaven. And, man, what I have found!

Basically nothing has been changed. Since the law was made, it was mentioned that a man does not need direct permission or consent from his first wife for the marriage. But he will definitely need to have a written permission from the local Arbitration Council. And the wife has a say on choosing the members of that council. 

Do you want to know where all these are coming from? Why all of a sudden this law is resurfacing and becoming the meme of the week? 

Now, all this confusion started when The High Court published a judgement in December and someone decided to just highlight the point that a wife's permission is not mandatory.

I’m sure the news that started this spark definitely had all the facts inside. The fact that a writ petition was filed in 2022, saying a wife’s consent should be mandatory for a husband’s second marriage. Then the High Court dismissed the petition in August 2023, and the full judgment was published in December. 

In other words, the law remains exactly as it was -- it did not say that you have freedom for polygamy. 

Now someone can tell me to chill, that it was a joke. It’s not like all married men are lined up to get married again. I don’t need to take everything seriously. 

Yes, maybe it was a joke. Someone decided to publish a punchy clickbait heading to get more views. And it worked so well. Good for them. A 24-page court judgment became a misleading headline and all meme-loving creators decided to give it more attention than it was supposed to get. That's how the meme culture is now, I'm guessing. But not all topics are meant for memes. Specially some sensitive topics like second marriage, child marriage, dowry, etc. 

Memes might seem harmless but they are very powerful. I’ve seen memes making or breaking people’s careers, starting a whole argument over a topic that was long lost, and songs getting famous after decades of its time. So don’t take it so lightly.

Memes have a really strong hold on our opinions now. It’s funny, easy to make, quick to share and when it’s done spreading its web over the society, altering it is almost impossible. That’s what happened with the false news of men not needing wife's permission.

People laughed, got angry, or felt wronged -- all because of an incorrect piece of information. The importance of the ruling got lost in the chaos to go viral, and what should have been a serious legal discussion became a meme war.

Why does this matter? Because this isn’t just about the marriage law. It’s about how we, as a nation and a society, consume information. When we depend on memes rather than a reliable news source, we risk building opinions on distortions.

The High Court ruling was actually about upholding the status quo. But the meme version made it sound like multiple marriages have become easier. This difference matters; how memes shaping our mindset matters. It matters because maybe some other day another serious issue will lose its value over a meme share and we will miss the opportunity to retrieve it.

We have social issues that need more attention. Not only from activists, policy makers,lawyers and judges, but from families, communities, and anyone who wants real changes. If we care about the truth we need to stop letting memes take the steering wheel of our social issues. 

Bangladesh’s second marriage law hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way people have been talking about it. Social media has turned a technical legal issue into a viral topic without context. And while memes can spark conversation, they shouldn’t be allowed to replace journalism, or plain old fact-checking.

If we seriously want to debate on family law, gender equality, social issues, we should not let this meme culture dictate the narratives. 

Otherwise, the next viral post won’t just mislead, it will rewrite reality in the public imagination.

Shanim Tasnim is Senior Editorial Assistant, Counterpoint.