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How to hit your wife according to Islam,

explained by the PA Mufti of Gaza Hassan Al-Laham

"Not hitting that will bring the police,

and break her hand and cause bleeding,

or hitting that makes the face ugly "

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Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik





During a weekly Palestinian Authority TV program on social issues, the Mufti of Gaza Hassan Al-Laham discussed divorce in Islam. He explained that Allah directed men to take four steps to resolve conflicts with one's wife before resorting to divorce:

"Allah said: Warn them [the wives], and separate from them, and hit them, and bring an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family."

[Official PA TV, Feb. 8, 2016]



His essential message is that while "she became your wife, and she is under your command," nonetheless, hitting is to be used only after warning her and separating from her "in the bedroom" has failed to achieve the desired result. And then, when hitting is being used at the proper time, it should not be a severe beating:

"Not hitting that will bring the police, and break her hand and cause bleeding, or hitting that makes the face ugly."

Indeed, the hitting should "be like a joke," even reinforcing "the love and friendship" between the couple:

"This hitting is a kind of reminder that the love and friendship that Allah commanded, is still found between us (i.e., the couple)."

Other broadcasts on PA TV relating to women's rights and position in Palestinian society documented by Palestinian Media Watch :











"This woman may not and has no rights to deny him this right [to sex]... a woman must [only] leave home at the discretion of her husband... The woman should obey her husband and please him."

[PA TV, Aug. 2 and 12, 2012]











"The beating is not a severe beating, and as the experts in Islamic law said: 'Hit her with a handkerchief.'"

[PA TV, March 14, 2007]

PA TV has run a public service announcement to promote equal opportunity for women.





PA TV has also broadcast a satire ridiculing the inequality of women in PA society.

The following is a longer excerpt of the PA Mufti of Gaza describing the rules for hitting one's wife: