This is not the first time the United States has turned a blind eye on happenings in Saudi Arabia. Early this year, Saudi Arabia embarked on an exercise of beheading people who speak against the dictatorial policies of the country’s ruling class. 47 people, including a prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Bakir al-Nimr, were beheaded on January 1st, 2016, for embarking on anti-government activities.

The content of the video features a doctor who is said to specialize in therapy; Khaled Al-Saqaby teaching men how to ‘properly’ beat their wives if their [wives] disobey them.According to Al-Saqaby, husbands should not immediately attack their wives, but should discipline them ‘properly’ first. He then makes it clear that in marriage, there is nothing like equality, and that men should take charged and rule the home.

In an event where women disobey their husbands, Al-Saqaby teaches in the video that the men should follow the steps below in making sure that the women are corrected. “The first step is to remind her of your rights and of her duties according to Allah. Then comes the second step – forsaking her in bed.The third step, beating, has to correspond with the necessary Islamic conditions” before taking action. The beating should not be performed with a rod, nor should it be a headband, or a sharp object.

Instead, husbands should use a ‘tooth-cleaning twig or with a handkerchief’ to beat their wife. The wife will feel that she was wrong in the way she treated her husband,” says Al-Saqaby.

Ending his controversial teaching, Al-Saqaby says his teaching of how to beat wives is not exhaustive, and that sometimes, men can beat their wives without following his steps when the women go to the extreme by disobeying their husbands.

He also blamed the women for provoking their husbands, expressing shock that some women are ‘stubborn’ to the point that only beatings can bring them to order.

“In addition, sometimes a woman makes a mistake that may lead her husband to beat her. I’m sad to say there are some women who say ‘Go ahead, if you are a real man, beat me’ She provokes them,” he adds in the video.

Critics of the video say, although some of the teachings Al-Saqaby espoused in the video concerning how husbands should treat their wives are found in the Holy Quran, they were used in a context.They accuse Al-Saqaby and the Saudi government of being selective with the verses of the Holy Book in order to satisfy their own interest.

The author Matt Agorist of the Free Thought Project has chronicled some verses from the Quran and Hadith to highlight how a religious text can be used to incite peace or violence; that Islam prohibits or promotes men beating their wives.

The Hadith is the record of the sayings and conduct of the Islamic Prophet, Muhammad during his lifetime. The record was recorded by his disciples and those known to be close to him.

According to Mr Agorist, Al-Saqaby teaching on the subject should not be taken serious because it is full of his own interpretations, in order to serve the interest of the ruling class of the country.

Some women groups have also called for the United States government to condemn the video, as it denigrates womanhood. But neither the State Department, which is responsible for international relations for the country, nor any government official from the White House, has commented on the controversial video.

This sparked huge tension in the Islamic World. The United States never commented, or issued a statement, on the beheadings.
 
 

The post Unrepentant in Misogyny, Saudi Arabia releases video on National TV showing husbands how to beat their wives appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Every theocratic state needs religious boosters to survive as a totalitarian state. It can be seen regularly happening in Pakistan. It came into being on August 14, 1947 as an Islamic State but the first formal dictator General Ayub Khan (1958-69) realised that Pakistan needed a booster dose of Islamism so many of the democratic rights of women and minorities, both religious and linguistic, were curtailed.
 
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the worst dictator (1978-88) declared that Pakistan, already an Islamic state, would be governed under 'Nizam-e-Mustafa' (Rule of the Prophet). Though fond of 'nautch' he introduced high octane Islamic laws making life in Pakistan a living hell for women and traditional minorities like Christians, Hindus, Shias and Ahmedyas.
 
Interestingly, the dreaded Blasphemy Laws followed by Zia were introduced by a so called democratically elected ruler, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1971-77). Bhutto introduced the Hudood Laws that, in the eyes of the law and state, turned women and minorities into sub-human beings. Democratically elected ruler Benazir Bhutto (1988–90 and 1993–96) also adhered to Islamism and continued giving booster dozes of Islam to the Pakistani state. In a framework of an Islamic theocratic state they all played their pre-destined role.

This process is still on as a natural corollary of the formation of a theocratic state in Pakistan. The latest booster dose of Islamism is in the form of a demand by an official religious agency that articulates that Muslim males should be allowed to thrash their wives.

This outrageous demand has appeared in a document titled, ironically as the 'Women Protection Bill'. According to a recent press report, "The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has proposed its own Women Protection Bill, recommending ‘a light beating’ for the wife if she defies her husband.

The council has proposed that a husband should be allowed to ‘lightly’ beat his wife if she defies his commands and refuses to dress up as per his desires, turns down the demand of intercourse without any religious excuse or does not take bath after intercourse or menstrual periods. It further suggests that beating is also permissible if a woman does not observe Hijab, interacts with strangers, speaks loud enough that she can easily be heard by strangers and provides monetary support to the people without taking consent of her spouse".[i]

You are grossly mistaken if you believe that it is happening in Pakistan, a theocratic state, alone. Organisations wedded to the Hindutva worldview,  working zealously to convert India into a Hindu theocratic state have been supporting bashing of Hindu women, albeit in a more subtle and organised manner.

The largest organization in the world to circulate literature on the Hindu way of life has these popular title both in English and Hindi namely 'How to lead a Household Life' and 'Grahsth Mein Kaise Rahen' by Swami Ramsukhdas. This book is in a question-answer format and is a kind of Guide Book for to imbibe and practice the Hindu way of life.

A question is posed: “What should the wife do if her husband beats her and troubles her?”[ii] Swami Ramsukhdas offers the following sagely advice to the battered wife and her parents: "The wife should think that she is paying her debt of her previous life and thus her sins are being destroyed and she is becoming pure. When her parents come to know this, they can take her to their own house because they have not given their daughter to face this sort of bad behaviour."[iii]

And if her parents do not take her to their house, learned Swamiji’s pious advice is: "Under such circumstances…she should reap the fruit of her past actions. She should patiently bear the beatings of her husband with patience. By bearing them she will be free from her sins and it is possible that her husband may start loving her."[iv]
 
This book came out in 1990 and so far has had 50 editions both in Hindi and English with 1.2 million copies circulated. Interestingly, it is the most popular title with non-resident Indians (NRIs). The publishers of this book has more than 10 other titles on Women and these books are sold from hundreds of outlets including 110 railway stations where the Geeta Press has been provided stalls free of charge by the central government. The allotments were first allowed by Kamlapati Tripathi in 1970s when he was railway minister for many years in Indira Gandhi cabinet. Such books are also available at RSS run book stalls.
 
The Hindutva fraternity, functioning within the largest democracy in the world, is thus, far ahead in propagating wife beating in comparison to the Islamists in Pakistan.
 
Islamists and practitioners of Hindutva may appear to be indulging all kinds of rhetoric against each other but fact is that they together remain committed to a rare commonality of interests as far the status and treatment of their own women are concerned. Both seem to have studied, and propagate an anti-woman worldview. And this, as far as Indian is concerned, within an egalitarian polity that ‘allows’ such demeaning ‘Guides’ for women.
 
(The writer is an academician and can be followed on @shamsforjustice)

References:
[i]Wife=Beating:This 'women Protection Bill' also contains many other brazenly sadist demands against women.
[ii] Ramsukhdass, Swami, How to Lead a Household Life, Gita Press, Gorakhpur, 2001, p. 43.
[iii]Ibid.
[iv]Ibid.

The post Two Sides of the Same Coin: Islamists & Practioners of Hindutva Share a Worldview of Wife Beating appeared first on SabrangIndia.