Wife Beating: A Muslim Marriage Guide

[Jennifer Groves]

 

"A popular marriage guide that has sold out in one Toronto bookstore is gaining media attention because of the book's controversial focus—how to beat and control your wife.

 

"The book, titled "A Gift for the Muslim Couple," is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who, according to the book's foreword, is a "prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning.""

 

http://www.newsmax.com/Emerson/Muslim-Marriage-Gift-Islamic/2012/03...

 

"In the book's opening, Thanvi writes that "It might be necessary to restrain her [one's wife] with strength or even to threaten her."

 

"Later, Thanvi enumerates the rights of the husband, which include forbidding his wife to leave "his house without his permission," having his wife "fulfill his desires," and insisting that he "not allow herself to be untidy . . . but should beautify herself for him."

 

"Even more controversial are the measures available to a husband if his wife is disobedient. Fortunately, the book notes that a husband should "refrain from beating her excessively," but he is permitted to "beat by hand or stick," "pull [her] by the ears," verbally scold her, or withhold money."

 

"Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient . . . As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them." Qur'an 4.34