PA TV broadcasts 'religious rules' for beating wives

(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority’s official television network gave viewers instructions on what a female reporter described as the Islamic “religious rules” that husbands should use when they physically abuse their wives, Palestinian Media Watch reported Thursday.

“To those who use beatings and violence to solve their marital problems: carefully read the Quranic verse again (Sura 4:34),” the PA TV reporter said April 1 on the “Talk of the Land” program. “There are solutions before giving beatings. If you have to, there are religious rules for beatings that must be obeyed. Guys, the goal of the beatings is rebuke in a way that does not cause injury. You can even go ask someone about it.”

PMW, an organization that monitors and documents Palestinian incitement, noted in an email bulletin that while the Palestinian reporter “did remind viewers that ‘there are solutions before giving beatings,’ she didn’t categorically reject violence against women.” 

Similarly, in February 2016, Gaza-based Islamic religious leader Hassan al-Laham advised in a PA TV broadcast that when disciplinary methods such as “warning” wives and “separating from them in bed” fail, husbands should beat their wives discreetly—“not hitting that will bring the police, and break her hand and cause bleeding, or hitting that makes the face ugly.”