In Islam, marriage is a contract for pleasure, so there can be no rape

See, the husband isn’t raping her if he forces her into sex against her will, he’s just enforcing the terms of the contract. You know, like making some vendor deliver the goods you paid for. Yeah, that’s it! The good Islamic husband is just making her deliver the goods.

But don’t take my word for it; just ask the honored Egyptian Islamic cleric, Yousuf al-Badri:

From the MEMRI transcript:

Interviewer: What if it is against her will, using violence?

Yousuf Al-Badri: According to the hadith, if a husband summons his wife and she refuses – she incurs the wrath of God in Heaven when she’s asleep. The husband is not allowed to rape her, but she incurs the wrath of Allah. The Prophet Muhammad said that she must come to him even if she is baking by the stove or riding a horse.

[…]

Interviewer: A marriage of contract is not a deed of ownership, in which the woman relinquishes her honor, her mind, and so on.

Yousuf Al-Badri: This talk about honor is a new thing. We never heard of it until these days. If a woman is at home with her husband, and she is his companion and runs the household, and he asks her to give him food, drink, and so on – how can we possibly consider it rape when he derives pleasure from her, even if she doesn’t feel like it, of if she abhors it… How can we possibly consider it a kind of what is called “rape”? This is not true.

Interviewer: She’s his wife! Do you justify beatings or sadistic behavior?

Yousuf Al-Badri: Islam forbids beating unless it is done with a stick – a stick the size of a pencil or a toothpick.

Are we clear, now, ladies? A Muslim wife who breaks the pleasure contract incurs Allah’s anger and can get beaten with a stick. And then, if he enforces the contract, it isn’t rape.

Glad we’re all on the same page, now.

PREVIOUSLY: We’ve heard this “It’s not rape-rape* inside marriage” argument before, from American and British Muslim clerical groups.

PS: The interview was conducted on the BBC’s Arabic channel, and I was glad to see the interviewer challenge this schmuck on his medieval misogyny, unlike the Egyptian interviewer who looked like he was excited to hear the good news that he could honor his wife by beating her.

*On a related note, thank you, Whoopi Goldberg, for demonstrating once and for all just how stupid and morally bankrupt you are.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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