An Islamic group has produced a half-hour-long video explaining that Muslim husbands are allowed to hit their wives.
Members of Hibz ut-Tahrir in Australia filmed a lecture in which two Muslim women explain under what circumstances men are permitted to punish women physically.
The video, published on Facebook, discusses a verse in the Koran which mandates striking one’s wife.
Reem Allouche and Atika Latifi, the women in the video, describe the teaching as “a beautiful gift from Allah” – and later demonstrate suggested ways a husband can hit his wife.
Latifi listed potential offences which could merit physical punishment – which included infidelity, disobedience, and “letting anyone into the home who husband dislikes”.
She then explains the appropriate response (27.40 in the video):
Three measures are recommended – advise them first, leave them alone in bed, and hit them…
[First] warn her against disobedience. If it produce the desired result [then stop].
If it doesn’t, then the other measure he can use as husband can refuse to share the bed with her, and not being intimate with her, by not sleeping.
And if this doesn’t work, and it does not bring the desired effect, then the third measure that is permitted – I want to make this very clear, he is permitted, not obliged, not encouraged, but he is permitted to hit her.
And what a beautiful blessing from Allah, that he said not to take the steps at one time, but it is one after the other.
Towards the end of the video, Latifi cites scholarly interpretations of the verses, which insist any hitting is “symbolic” and “should not cause pain”.
She then produced a small stick and a folded piece of fabric, which she said might be appropriate tools to use.
When the video was unearthed by the Australian press, it sparked a huge backlash.
Moderate Muslim groups condemned the video, as did the Australian government’s minister for women:
Domestic violence is abuse, plain and simple, not “a beautiful blessing”. Govt condemns video of Women of Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia #auspol
— Michaelia Cash (@SenatorCash) April 13, 2017
Hibz ut-Tahrir eventually published a statement attacking the media for their “tabloid treatment” of the story, and the government for their “shameless demonisation of Muslim women”.
They said in hindsight it was unwise to post the video online, but insisted that their teaching was correct and vowed not to “succumb to reinterpretations of Islam forced by liberal hounding.”
“In fact,” they added, “the greater the pressure, the greater our adherence to Islam must be.”
