Mayor of London Boris Johnson's ex-wife, 45, reveals she married a 23-year-old Pakistani Muslim man in Lahore, wishes to be 1st wife of 4

The following commentary is from a Muslim woman who feels that bored wealthy western women converting to Islam and adopting all its archaic values - are working in opposition to the freedoms they and their mothers worked hard for and hoped to achieve within Islam.

It is clearly living PC - not just talking about it - it is not only when you want to others to overlook the problematic areas within Islam - you become the problem. George Galloway is a perfect example. Where those mainly one the Left - attempt to show how absolutely perfect Islam is - and how its values fit perfectly into the modern world - they soon tire of talking and adopt the religion - making sure to include the things which westerns object to most. A convert to Islam in German - who converted on marrying a Muslim man - and was a prominent school teacher - or in education - remarked that stoning might be good in a western society - something to the effect that it might make people think twice before indulging in sex outside of marriage.

No surprise if next these converts will be telling everyone that - Islamic Shari'a law is best for everyone - that because the Prophet said a women's word is worth half - that indeed is the way it should be for all!

Besides all this there is a real market in the marriage to older western women in the Muslim world - these younger men look to marrying these older non-virgins to secure passports out of poverty. It appears Mayor of London Boris Johnson's ex fell for such a scheme.

Earlier days: Miss Mostyn-Owen married Boris Johnson in 1987, the year he graduated from Oxford University


Women should be wary of romanticising Islam

Allegra Mostyn-Owen even implied she would be content to be one of several of his wives. Since she is 45, she said she would be happy for her new husband to have children with a younger woman.

They would then live as an ‘extended family’ as sanctioned by the Prophet Mohammed ‘who said it was OK to marry up to four women’, she declared. [+]

I am keen to meet Allegra Mostyn-Owen and support her invaluable work at the mosque in Forest Gate, east London.

She runs art classes there for Muslim women and children. Muslim minds and lives are being closed down worldwide by fanatics who deny young people art, music and books. This intrepid white woman dares to push aside the curtain of ignorance.

She was the first wife of Boris Johnson — clearly not a woman to shirk challenges. But then I find out that she has married a much younger Lahori man and imagines her future as an ageing wife who will happily accept her lot within an orthodox Islamic set-up and welcome a younger wife to produce children. It is her choice and one wishes her well.

Several of my close Pakistani and Arab friends are happily married to European wives, with both sides compromising on lifestyles and values.

That is not what Mostyn-Owen has opted for. First she has married a much younger, fit man and maybe feels excessively grateful. Then she is going for complete surrender, an uncritical acceptance of the most regressive practices of some of my co-religionists. The reactions of her family are subtly xenophobic and must hurt. But her actions are as inexplicable to Muslims like myself too. My mother's generation fought for equality and monogamous marriages, a struggle that carries on. To see the daughters of Britannia carelessly surrendering these rights is almost unbearable.

It is happening elsewhere in Europe too. Since 9/11, vast numbers of educated, privileged middle-class white women have converted to Islam, often the most restricted forms with tediously long rulebooks. Surveys suggest they are the fastest growing group of converts in the West. Here they include women at investment banks, TV stations, universities and in the NHS.

Four years ago, when the trend first became clear, Dr Haifa Jawad, of Birmingham University, said: “The women were reacting to the moral uncertainties of the Western world. Many convert out of conviction and not because they are in love.”

Mostyn-Owen says her husband is “untainted by the jaded confusion of western urban life”. Such images of contamination and purity are often used to explain the decisions. Three such converts told me last year their nun-like apparel makes them feel less objectified and they feel “cleansed”.

Islam gives women their own property and money and the right to sexual pleasure within marriage — radical stuff at a time when females in the world were but chattels. [Oh please give us a break, women in the Arabian peninsular were allowed to marry more than one man before Muhammad said he saw more women in hell] Most Muslim women I know are blissfully happy and able to be what they want. Not one of them would accept polygamy. The religion was born at a time when men around the world had several wives. It has no place in today's world.

Mostyn-Owen and other such submissive converts may think their new lives are excitingly exotic but their choices drag the faith back to the dark ages. And why? Just because they are a bit bored with liberty? Progressive Muslims have enough to contend with without these whimsies. The good lady must make hers a modern Muslim marriage between equals, otherwise I fear there will be many tears before bedtime.

Women should be wary of romanticising Islam | News