It could only happen if their husband consented. Sometimes he just wouldn't show up (one guy had left his wife with six kids and married someone else but wouldn't give his first wife a divorce). Quite a balance view I thought but a bit shocking to see it happening now in western Sydney - all the conversations with the sheiks were in Arabic
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/thursday-june-21-20120615-20ds2.html
Quiet!!! - Don't you know that only Nazis question this sort of thing, and that we should all celebrate the "vibrant cultural diversity" of misogyny and chavaunistic 8th century superstitions