Sitting in one room, a young Muslim woman tells an elderly cleric about the parlous state of her marriage to a 50-year-old man.
‘He oppressed me to the maximum,’ she declares. ‘He is violent, physically, and treats me like a dog.’
The woman — who looks barely out of her early 20s — describes her spouse as verbally and physically abusive about ‘every little thing’ she does.
When the husband’s around, he forces her to wear a headscarf. When he isn’t, which is often, he likes to travel to Tunisia, where she suspects he has secretly married several other women.
For all she knows, she adds, he might have accumulated as many as ten other wives. Fighting back tears, as she finishes this tale of betrayal, the woman glances to the cleric, who has a long white beard, and sits at a raised desk in front of a bookcase full of Islamic texts. Perhaps she’s hoping for a supportive smile, confirming she’s not at fault. Maybe she’s seeking reassurance that the man will hold her misogynistic, wife-beating husband to account.
Instead, the elderly cleric, whose name is Suhaib Hasan, starts laughing. ‘Why did you marry such a person?’ he chuckles. [2805 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 18542 votes] I blame the governments that have allowed this backward justice towards women to prosper in this country,
[2ND 16043] Could we set up an English court in their country????????? no thought not...
[3RD 13952] The should only be 1 law and that is English law,if thats not acceptable,then live elsewhere.
[4TH 11786] The only shocking thing here is our successive governments have allowed this to happen!!! I hate what has happened to my country
[5TH 10948] If this country is allowing sharia courts this is an affront to our legal system. It must be outlawed immediately and those who have allowed it brought to task. What a mess we are creating!
[6TH 9054] For me things like this are simply unacceptable. I'm just waiting for somebody to lead us out of this. [Mail on Sunday] Read more
