Religious Leaders say Wife-Beating is OK Sometimes

A Pakistani Muslim group is under fire for proposing that a husband can "lightly beat" his wife to keep her in line.
 
The Council of Islamic Ideology, which advises the Pakistani government on religion matters and determines "whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam," drafted a so-called women's protection bill that would, among other things, also allow a husband to beat his wife if she dresses inappropriately or refuses to have sex.
 
The 20-member council is proposing that female nurses be forbidden from caring for male patients and a ban on women appearing in television or print advertising.
 
The chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology told reporters that "If you want her (wife) to mend her ways, you should first advise her. If she refuses, stop talking to her, stop sharing a bed with her, and if things do not change, get a bit strict," Muhammad Kahn Sherani told Pakistan's Express-Tribune newspaper.
 
If those attempts fail to keep her in line, Sherani said, "Hit her with light things like handkerchief, a hat or a turban, but do not hit her on the face or private part."
 
The chairman's comments and the proposed draft bill have sparked outrage among human rights groups.
 
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the proposal "ridiculous" and said the council should be abolished.
 
"It is difficult to comprehend why anyone in his right mind would think that any further encouragement or justification is needed to invite violence upon women in Pakistan," the Commission stated.
 
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of Pakistan's late prime minister Benazir Bhutto, reacted to the proposal saying that the members of the Islamic group should instead by given a "light beating."
 
A report last month by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan found that about 70 percent of Pakistani women have suffered domestic violence. The group is hoping the proposals "will be condemned unreservedly by all segments of society."
 
The overwhelming majority of Pakistan's 190 million people are Muslim. The country is home to nearly 13 percent of the world's Muslim population.
 
Under Pakistan's constitution, women are considered equal under the law. However, the document is based on Sharia, an Islamic system of jurisprudence, that often discriminates and encourages violence against women.
 
Article 227 of the constitution states that all existing laws "shall be brought in conformity with the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah...and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such injunctions."
 
Despite women's controversial role within Islamic law, a 2012 World Values Survey found that 70 percent of Pakistanis believed that a "man beating his wife" was never justifiable.