When it became acceptable that husbands may 'lightly' beat their wives.

Quran is the holy book of Islam. The literal meaning of ‘Quran’ is “the recitation”, the revelation by Allah. The guiding principles given by Allah for his children to lead a life of love, a life that Allah wants them to. He has sent his word for his children, that word is Quran. And I am not the one who is saying all this, Islam does. From the little knowledge that I possess about Islam, I believe that this religion too, like all others, believes in equality, love and peace. But then my beliefs are completely devastated by the learned men of this world. The men who know certainly much more than I do.

Though equally disturbing and stressing issues are available in abundance in this world, I chose to talk about this, “When it became acceptable that husbands may ‘lightly’ beat their wives.”

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has proposed that it is acceptable for the husband to ‘lightly’ beat his wife ‘if needed’. This is one of the key proposals of a bill which, ironically enough, is named as the ‘model’ Women’s Protection Bill. Despite my constant sincere efforts in order to find grounds which might validate such a proposal in the year of 2016, I failed miserably and found none. Not diving deep into the philosophical arena and putting it in simple words, I believe that a strong relationship between a husband and wife rests on the pillars of mutual love and respect, regardless of the religion the two belong to. It becomes even more shocking to come across any such ideology which claims to ‘protect’ women and in accordance to that makes such ignorant and imbecile remarks. When the people of the world are fervently and passionately working for the cause of equality of genders, such an indelible move proves not only to be a disappointment but also bares the realities of this immutable and rigid sector that we are dealing with.

It is extremely hard and heavy for me to agree to this statement that ‘men and women are the same’. Beyond any possibilities of doubt, they are different. They were meant to be different. But what bugs me is categorizing them as superior and inferior merely on the basis of their difference. Mankind learnt loads but somewhere, forgot to learn to accept change

The CII believes that if a woman defies her husband, the husband may resort to use force to get his commands through. The word ‘lightly’ has been included in the proposal after much deliberation. But then why is it so important to always obey your husband? Why a woman can’t have a difference in opinion? Why a woman can’t have an opinion at all? Lately, such questions have been keeping me uneasy.

 As the name goes, ‘The Council of Islamic Ideology’ has a crucial responsibility of representing the ideology practiced and professed by Islam but such a benighted and backward proposal will only defame and insult the religion which teaches to live and love.

 I dare to question.

I question these guardians of Islam, what do they consider to be ‘light’? Will just a ‘slap’ qualify as light beating? Or is it beating lightly with a stick? Or to put it more candidly, beating until the wife agrees to obey? What according to them qualifies to be included in their so called ‘Women’s Protection Bill’?

As a woman, I am not sad today. Rather I am compelled to laugh at such trivial efforts by the society to silence the roar of a lioness. I am not sad because I know that they will realize soon, they cannot silence the voice of power, the voice of a woman. Allah will safeguard his children because for him, I am not the weaker gender, I am a soul filled with his love and power.

4:124 Quran states,

"If any do deeds of righteousness be they male or female and have faith, they will enter Heaven, and not the least injustice will be done to them."