Saudi Judge: Go Ahead, Slap Your Wife
A Saudi judge once again displayed great ignorance and a clear lack of insight into life and human relations by telling men it is perfectly OK for them to slap their wife every now and then:
Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that “if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment.”
Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine’s statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported.
Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in Saudi Arabia. He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that “nobody puts even a fraction of blame” on women, the newspaper said.
Al-Razine “also pointed out that women’s indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country,” it added.
That is of course not the case at all. The reason for the increase in domestic violence is that barbaric men are told they can, sometimes even must beat their wives. The more you rationalize violence, the worse it becomes.
Saudi women, on the other hand, are slowly but surely waking up to the fact that they too have rights, and that they have been oppressed by their men for decades (longer than that actually, but it has become especially bad in the last few decades, after Wahhabism became the official religion of the country founded by Ibn Saud. They want more rights – and rightly so – and instead of giving them what they deserve, people like this judge tell men they should just slap their wife when she dares disobey him/do what she rather than what he wants.
We can only hope they will be freed from their ignorance one day.
well duh
Until Al-Razine accepts the culpability of abusers in all society, Saudi women will continue to risk abuse when accepting marriage. His outlandish views negatively influence the world’s opinion of Saudi Arabia, as being a brutal society. Al-Razine needs an education, like I tell my kids, it’s one thing to be wrong, it’s another to proudly tell the whole world about it.
Well, duh, let’s get Judge Al Razine over here for president and expend his powers to slap the assholes who just robbed our national treasury, like Henry, Bush, Cheney, James Baker, Paulson, Barney, and a whole slu of other nameless and shameless thieves. Slapping the women is nothing to raping a whole nation and beyond.
“slapping the women is nothing to…” and that’s precisely why it still happens.
So, we’re surprised that a Saudi judge, no a Saudi MAN would make this comment? Isn’t this a society where women MUST wear an abaya (the black cover) at all times? Isn’t this a society where women can’t be out in public without a man, either a brother or husband? Women must wear the abaya so that they won’t entice men out in public because,of course, men cannot be counted on to control themselves. Women’s worth there is nil and they’re to blame for everything, including causing their husbands to slap and beat them? The remark makes me angry, furious and wanting to fight for change. But, it certainly doesn’t shock or surprise me. It’s typical!