A court in the United Arab Emirates has convicted a Muslim man for having gone a little too far in beating his wife and 23-year-old daughter because the punishment “left marks.” According to court documents, the man slapped and kicked his daughter, leaving bruises on her right hand and right knee. He also slapped his wife, injuring her lower lip and teeth.
In a ruling reported October 2010 in the English-language publication The National, Chief Justice Falah al Hajeric decided the man had the right to punish his wife and children, but only up to a point. Moreover, such punishment must come only after other alternatives have been tried and failed, such as reprimands and withholding marital relations.
Al Hajeric stated in his decision that “Although the [Islamic law] permits the husband to use his right [to physically discipline], he has to abide by the limits of this right. If the husband abuses this right to discipline, he cannot be exempted from punishment.” The daughter was too old to be disciplined, he ruled, and the wife was beaten too severely. Wife-Beating Okay, But Not ‘Too Much’
Although the Islamic Qur’an 4:34 states, “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them… and beat them”, this has different interpretations.
Some Islamic authorities emphasized that wife-beating under Islamic or Sharia law is considered “absolutely unlawful.” Jihad Hashim Brown, the head of research at Tabah Foundation, which specializes in the interpretation of Islamic law stated, “When a situation in a marriage reaches the point where people feel like they need to hit someone, that is time for divorce.” “Anyone who would abuse, injure or even insult the dignity of their wife, this has now become a criminal offense which can be prosecuted in a court of law.”
In Palestine, specifically, in Gaza, Arab women and elsewhere are often terrorized by Arab men, and beaten or worse for minor infractions such as neglecting to wear a hijab (scarf) to cover their hair in public. Young girls are being forced to wear hijab in secondary schools. When they resist, they were forced into the blazing sun “in an attempt to force them to wear the hijab.
With the rise of Khomeini in Iran, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, coupled with the increasing influence of both Khomeiniism and Saudi Wahhabism, worldwide, especially on Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, freedom for women ended.
Although some Muslim women will defend their “choice” to wear the Islamic veil, it is a “forced” choice, not a “free” choice. Girls and women have been honor murdered in the Islamic world and by Muslim immigrants in the West for refusing to do so; they have also been harassed, insulted, beaten, fired from their jobs, and forced into permanent spinsterhood in Muslim communities, world-wide. They have also been misinformed about Islam and believe, wrongly, that the Qur’an requires them to cover their faces, their bodies, and their heads. However, like men, women are merely told to dress “modestly.”
There are more and more women in burqas and niqab on the streets of Europe and North America, women wearing tight headscarves and long, heavy coats in the hottest weather and they are walking right besides their husbands who may have beards but who are wearing light-weight, summery western-style clothing. Obediently wearing the Islamic Veil does not protect Muslim women from being raped and beaten within their own families, harassed on the streets, or sold into sexual slavery.
