Citation

Marín M. Stud. Islam. 2003; (97): 5-40.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, G.-P. Maisonneuve-Larose [etc.])

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 2000 a book published in Spain caused a media scandal, followed by an official question addressed to the upper house of the Parliament and a lawsuit against the book's author. Entitled La mujer en el islam ("Women in Islam"), this book was written by Mohamed Kamal Mostafa, the imam in the mosque of Fuengirola, a seaside resort on the southern Spanish coast. At the center of public attention and hostile reactions was the section of the book entitled "mistreatment of women." Quotations from this section of the book appeared in national newspapers, and its author, M. K. Mostafa, was accused of advising husbands how to beat their wives without leaving any traces. Feminist associations led the protest against the book, and it was they who initiated legal actions against the imam. Not wanting to be seen as condoning violence against women, Muslim communities in Spain therefore disavowed the positions taken in the book. The whole affair contributed to creating a negative image of Islam, adding fresh fuel to the already heated controversy on the role of Muslims in Western societies. In the Spanish context, the "discovery" by a general public of Qur'anic texts, as presented by M. K. Mostafa, that seemed to approve the beating of disobedient wives, has to be placed in the context
of a new awareness concerning physical mistreatment of women - a social problem of growing relevance in a country where, in 2001 alone, 42 women were killed by their partners.

The offending paragraphs in the book by M. K. Mostafa are hardly original. Similar statements can be found in Islamist literature all over the Arab-speaking world as well as in Western languages. As a rule, this kind of literature offers literal readings of Qur'an, 4:34, a verse used to justify male domination over women in the family as well as in the social sphere. Following the traditional exegesis of this verse, contemporary Islamists and conservative Muslim scholars understand it as God's will to give husbands the authority to beat their disobedient wives. Characteristically, this kind of commentary disregards the classical debate on the subject, and focuses instead on defining the essential inferiority of women, who need to be guided by the male members of their families and, if necessary, to be physically chastised by them.