Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) proposed a ruling today that said that a husband should be allowed to ‘lightly’ beat his wife if she defies his commands.

The council has come up with its own Women Protection Bill and has allowed men to ‘lightly’ beat their wives if they disobey them, refuse to dress up as they with and even if they turn down the demand of intercourse without any religious intercourse. According to CII bill, such beating is also allowed if a woman does not observe Hijab, provides monetary support to anyone without taking consent of her spouse or interacts with strangers or speaks in a voice loud enough for strangers to hear.

The bill further proposes that co-education should be banned, women must not be allowed to take part in military combats, women must not be allowed to welcome foreign delegations or interact with males and recreational visits with Na-Mehram should be banned. CII bill says that female nurses should not attend the male patients, women should not work in advertisements and abortion after 120 days of conception should be termed murder.

The bill also said that a woman can join politics and can contract Nikka (shariah marriage deed) without the permission of parents. It further said that whoever tries to marry women to the Holy Quran or become an abettor in it should be punished with 10-year imprisonment.

Provincial Minister for Law Rana Sanaullah made a statement and called it bizarre. He said that how are ‘Mullahs’ going to decide what  can be classified as hard beating or light beating. “Are Mullahs going to decide by sitting on a man’s head?” he added. The CII came up with this bill after the rejecting Punjab’s Protection of Women against Violence Act (PPWA) 2015, as un-Islamic. CII will now forward its proposed bill to the Punjab Assembly.