Ah, that’s real progress! Certainly it’s more in keeping with civilized twenty-first century mores and customs.
A council of Islamic elders in Pakistan has proposed a new, more moderate punishment to be meted out by men whose wives commit one or more of several prescribed offenses. The specific derelictions include failure to dress the way hubby desires, failure to take a bath after menstruation or intercourse, failure to wear a hijab in public, and denial of consortium (which is legalese for refusing sex).
If a woman is guilty of any of these minor violations, her mate is permitted to beat her, but only lightly. Public floggings and similar forms of extreme violence are strictly verboten in these cases, though for more serious offenses (such as suspicion of infidelity), the sky remains the limit.
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The Daily Mail notes that this proposal, by the twenty members of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology, is a concession to western-style stirrings of dissatisfaction over the historic treatment of women under Sharia law. Punjab province, as a case in point, recently voted in favor of a Protection of Women against Violence Act, but the council shot it down as “un-Islamic.”
The article emphasizes that the council is a constitutional body that can only advise the government but has no power of its to make secular laws.
Meanwhile, the concession, while lukewarm, is light years ahead of the ruling handed down several years back at 192nd meeting of the council, which found that women are themselves un-Islamic and that their mere existence contradicts Sharia and the will of Allah.
Here’s an enlightening video on when it is and isn’t permissible to beat your wife.
