AP News, November 28th, 2007
A Muslim woman is allowed to fight back in self-defense if she is hit by her husband, Lebanon's top Shiite cleric declared Tuesday in a ruling rare for the region's male-dominated Islamic society.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah issued the fatwa, or religious edict, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
"We consider that if a man used physical violence against a woman and she could not defend herself except by retaliating with similar violence, she can do so out of self-defense," Fadlallah said in his fatwa.
A statement by his office said Fadlallah stressed that although Islam gives men supremacy over their wives in household affairs, it "does not approve of a man using any sort of violence against a woman, even in the form of insults and harsh words."
Fadlallah is the top religious authority for Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiites but has followers throughout the Mideast. He is considered a militant by the West for past links to the Hezbollah though he has adopted progressive, nonviolent stances on some issues, surprising some among his conservative followers.
Fadlallah has condemned honor killings, the custom in some conservative Muslim communities of murdering a female relative for sexual misconduct, and also called for peaceful boycott of American products. He also has banned smoking as a religious duty and approved cloning for scientific research purposes.
He also said that if a man used violence to suppress a woman's legal and marital rights, for example by withholding money for household expenses or refraining from having sexual relations with her, "she can respond by depriving him of the rights to which she had committed herself in the marriage contract."
Fadlallah said women were still victims of violence the world over, despite their "rise to the social and political levels and attaining highest government and nongovernment posts."
He also stressed that a woman's rights in the workplace and in the family should be respected.
