The Saudi Bitch Slap by Asra Q. Nomani

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-12/the-saudi-bitch-slap/

May 12, 2009 | 6:35am

Hassan Ammar / AP Photo A Saudi Arabian judge declared this weekend that husbands can slap their wives if they spend too much money. The Daily Beast’s Asra Q. Nomani on why his outrageous remarks are a helpful wakeup call for the Muslim world.

The blogs are lighting up with ridicule after a Saudi judge declared this past weekend that husbands can slap their wives on the face if they blow their husband’s money. One headline declared: “Saudi judge says it’s OK to bitch slap your wife.” Said a blogger: “Just more of those Muslim family values in action, folks!” Another headline laid out the news: “Saudi Sharia Judge: Slap the Bitch…”

For my part, I’m thrilled the judge said what he did—and got busted for it.

Razine’s statement is emblematic of a disturbing interpretation of Islam exported from Saudi Arabia to the far corners of the world, and we’re better served as a global society every time the absurdity of this ideology is exposed.

But first, let’s start with the facts. The incident occurred at, of all places, a conference on domestic violence, sanctioned by the Saudi royal family. During the conference, Sheik Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Razine, a judge in the Saudi city of Jeddah, tried to explain an increase in spousal abuse by suggesting spendthrift women were partly to blame, a Saudi newspaper reports.

“If a person gives SR1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends SR900 [$240] to purchase an abaya [a full black gown worn mostly with a face veil or head covering] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” he said, according to an Arab News account. Women in the audience jeered loudly—but because Saudi judges are also Islamic clerics, their comments are influential.

Hardline Saudi clerics urge TV ban on women, music

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5732oHtlBM6bVxcVIFhfbhjfn0QD9738O600

By DONNA ABU-NASR – 11 hours ago

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A group of Saudi clerics urged the kingdom’s new information minister on Sunday to ban women from appearing on TV or in newspapers and magazines, making clear that the country’s hardline religious establishment is skeptical of a new push toward moderation.

In a statement, the 35 hardline clergymen also called on Abdel Aziz Khoja, who was appointed by King Abdullah on Feb. 14, to prohibit the playing of music and music shows on television.

Saudis order 40 lashes for elderly woman for mingling

• Story Highlights
• Saudi newspaper says religious officer found two men in Syrian woman’s house
• Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi said she breast-fed one of men when he was infant
• Sawadi argues that under Islamic tradition, that makes man related to her
• Men to receives lashes, too; case sparks outrage in conservative Saudi Arabia

By Mohammed Jamjoom and Saad Abedine
CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/09/saudi.arabia.lashes/?iref=hpmostpop

(CNN) — A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.

According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men, “Fahd” and “Hadian.”