Sky News
A senior Muslim leader has said that beating your wife should be a ‘last resort’, in a controversial interview with Sky News’ Andrew Bolt.
Keysar Trad, who is the President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, spoke about the techniques one should use when dealing with a problem in your marriage.
Andrew Bolt questioned him about a particular section in a modern interpretation of the Koran, asking Mr Trad how Islam could be considered a ‘feminist’ religion.
“It is permissible for him to beat her lightly with his hands, avoiding her face and other sensitive areas,” Bolt quoted from the text.
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Bolt said, “Which is better than nothing, but mate, that’s a modern interpretation.”
Mr Trad explained that this excerpt is about ‘human psychology’, and gives a guide to how a man should go about dealing with his wife.
“What that verse is really putting as a scenario is if you come home and you’re really, really angry — we’ve seen many men act violently towards their women — what this verse is saying really is playing on the psychology of the man saying violence is a last resort,” he said.
“The first thing you must do is counselling … Before you even consider using your hand, before you consider an act of violence, have you checked box number one, which is counselling, have you checked box number two?
“So what does counselling entail? Maybe next time you should bring her a bunch of flowers, maybe next time you should bring her a box of chocolates, maybe next time you should take her out to dinner.”
He argued that a ‘good person’ would never get to the third option, which is beating your wife, as he would go through the correct steps.
Naturally, his comments caused outrage online.
He then appeared on Channel 10’s Studio 10 show to defend his comments.
“It’s a last resort as mentioned in the verse that you actually never get to,” he said. “You’re never ever meant to get to that resort. Some people who take it literally say that the hit that is referred to is a light touch, or just maybe even — I don’t even believe that you should do that. I believe that the first resort, which is the counselling, the communication, talking to each other, that is the resort that determines whether the relationship should continue or not continue.”
The topic of Islam as a ‘feminist’ religion has been widely discussed issue over the past couple of weeks after Senator Jacqui Lambie and author Yasmin Abdel-Magied clashed on Q&A over immigration policies.
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