Hassan al-Laham, a mufti in Gaza, has reportedly said that a man could hit his wife as a solution to marital issues. The watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch translated a segment from an interview in which he gives advice for husbands.
“Allah created a solution for this [...] warn them, and separate from them, and hit them, and bring an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family. [Only] after this comes divorce. The husband starts with a warning,” he reportedly said on an official Palestinian Authority television network.
See the translated segment below, via YouTube.
“The warning needs to be made politely by the husband to his wife, while he shows good relations, dialogue, respect and humanity,” he said, adding that “the warning should be made using a good word, good treatment and a positive look.”
However if this does not work, Laham said that jokingly hitting her is acceptable.
“Not hitting that will bring the police and break her hand and cause bleeding, or hitting that makes the face ugly. No [...] The hitting is not meant to disfigure, harm, or degrade. The hitting will be like a joke. He will hit her jokingly.”
