Saudi Arabia television channels aired a video teaching men the “proper” way to beat their wives, according to AWD News, a news site based in Dubai.

In the video, an Islamic doctor sits in the forest and explains the best way to beat one’s wife if she is disobedient. “This is the first step in disciplining your wife. First, remind her of your rights and of her duties, according to Allah. Then comes the second stage, forsaking her [in bed],” says the doctor, Khaled Al Saqaby.

“Then comes the third stage, the issue of beating…The necessary Islamic conditions for beating must be met. The beating should not be done with a rod, such as this one,” Saqaby says, picking up a large stick.

Instead, “it should be done with something like the sewaq tooth cleaning twig,” he advises, showing a very small twig that would be unlikely to cause injury (unless it was used to poke someone’s eye out).

“The point is to make the wife understand that she was wrong in the way she treated her husband…Unfortunately some wives want to live a life of equality with their husbands…This is a very grave problem,” the video concludes.

The video was reportedly aired in February but was only recently obtained and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a media monitoring group based in Washington DC.

In the past, the Saudi government has launched campaigns to cut down on domestic violence in the Kingdom, which is ruled by sharia law. Still, the country is notorious for its unequal treatment of women. Aside from Daesh's "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia is the only place on Earth with a law preventing women from driving.

—Hunter Stuart