Once again, the Saudis prove that they’re stuck square in the middle of the seventh century.
A Saudi judge told a conference on domestic violence that a man has the right to slap a wife who spends money wastefully and said women were as much to blame as men for increased spousal abuse, a Saudi newspaper reported.
The remarks do not carry the weight of law, as they were made out of court. But such public pronouncements by Saudi judges – who are also Islamic clerics – are often widely respected.
Yeah, this is the nation whose leaders Bush and Obama have both bowed to. This is the country that got Barbara Walters, Nancy Pelosi, and Laura Bush to wear headscarves. This is the nation that is supplying the funds to the Wahabbi mosques seeded throughout the nation. Boy, what a great bunch of guys!
“If a person gives 1,200 Saudi riyals ($320) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals ($240) to purchase an abaya (head-to-toe robe) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” Judge Hamad Al-Razine was quoted as saying by the English-language Arab News newspaper on Sunday.
Let me translate that into Americanese: “Bitch! You spent too much money on your tent!”
Okay, maybe I elaborated a bit. Substitute “dress” for “tent.”
But gee, what a great country. Not.
And Saudi Arabia is supposed to be a “moderate” state. Yeah, sure. Tell me another one.
I’m a bit puzzled. Why should the husband be upset because one of his wives spent 300 riyals less than he gave her for the burkha? She deserves a slap for saving money?
Perhaps it sounds more sensible in the original Arabic, just as Kaiser Wilhelm II’s speeches were said not to sound nearly as silly in German as they did in the English translations. But I’m skeptical. Generally I’ve found that you don’t get too much good sense coming out of the Arab Middle East.