Quran does not endorse beatings, activists say

ABU DHABI // The misinterpretation of a Quranic verse has allowed men to freely beat their wives while claiming Sharia gives them a right to do so, women's advocates said yesterday.

The verse, in surat Al Nisaa, has divided courts and scholars.

According to the scholar Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation, it says that to discipline women, men should "admonish them [first], [then] refuse to share their beds, [and last] idrobohun".

That last word, idrobohun, is the source of contention. In another Quranic verse it means "to wrap".

But there are other possible meanings: to beat lightly, to ignore completely, to abstain from or to leave.

Dr Jamila Khanji, director of the society services division at the Family Development Foundation, said its misinterpretation by religious scholars has lead to numerous women being "broken and destroyed".

"Idrobohun means to leave, there is a mistranslation in this verse," Dr Khanji said yesterday at a conference in the capital on violence against women. "It is not possible that God would insult a women and let her be beaten."

She said responsibility fell on religious scholars, who should revise the translation of the verse, to stop men using it as an excuse to beat their wives.

In October 2011, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that a husband was allowed to beat his wife and children so long as he did not leave any marks on them.

On the sidelines of the conference, Dr Khanji said it was impossible for God to allow men to beat a women, who are more sensitive than men, or could be pregnant or menstruating. That, she said, "doesn't make sense". "A Muslim man who is married to a Christian or a Jew, would he hit his wife?" she said.

"No, then why would God say hit your wife, when here only weak Muslim women would be victims?"

She said had seen an increase in violent acts against women in recent years.

While many at the conference appeared to agree, Jasim Hamadi, from social services in Sharjah, did not.

"This translation is not right, here it is meant to hit your wife, but not to leave a mark," he said.

Dr Khanji said that the translation she was using had been given to her by a religious scholar.

"Why would a man first ignore the wife in bed, then go to hit her?" she asked. "Hitting a women is deeply insulting, it would irreversibly damage the relationship."