A few weeks ago, I presented a video clip featuring a distinguished Egyptian cleric who told a rapt interviewer that Allah had created the punishment of beating a wife for refusing her husband sex and that this was a way of honoring her [1].
But this left open the question, what to do if she won’t help her husband get his freak on, even after a good beating?
Simple! He can just force her to have sex, since, according to the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, forcing your wife to have sex against her will really isn’t rape [2]:
In the name of Allah, all praise is for Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family. To proceed:
For a wife to abandon the bed of her husband without excuse is haram [forbidden]. It is one of the major sins and the angels curse her until the morning as we have been informed by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). She is considered nashiz (rebellious) under these circumstances. As for the issue of forcing a wife to have sex, if she refuses, this would not be called rape, even though it goes against natural instincts and destroys love and mercy, and there is a great sin upon the wife who refuses; and Allah Almighty is more exalted and more knowledgeable.
Notice that? Even though the husband is committing an act that “destroys love and mercy,” it isn’t rape and the sin is hers. Again, Islam makes the woman the one responsible for the sexual behavior of the man.
Be sure to read [2] the whole thing, because Dr. Bostom opens with a discussion of a similar organization in the UK that also argues there is no rape within a marriage. I can understand their logic, since these sharia law experts define rape as “adultery by force,” making the marital state a prerequisite condition and meaning rape can only occur outside of marriage.
But understanding is not the same as approving. It is, in fact, utterly barbaric and disgusting, again turning the woman in a marriage into little more than the man’s property and justifying, or at least excusing, unspeakable atrocities against her.
And they call this civilized?
(Crossposted at Public Secrets [3])