It seems Dr Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin is on a roll this week: after his diss towards Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan this past weekend, today he’s got his sights on fellow state mufti Harussani Zakaria of Perak, and the latter’s claim yesterday that “marital rape doesn’t exist in Islam”.
Once again taking to his official Facebook page, the combative Perlis mufti put out a seven-point rebuttal to Harussani’s remarks, which have courted ridicule and outrage, especially from women’s rights activists and moderate Muslims nationwide.
Dr MAZA contended that in Islam, husbands are just as obligated to satisfy the sexual needs of their wives, as their wives are obligated to keep their husbands happy in bed.
However, the sexual relationsship between Muslim married couples needs to be consensual and doesn’t involve discomfort or harm to either party, pointing to a dissenting opinion from Dr MAZA that marital rape is a thing that exists in Islam.
“Sexual relations between a husband and wife needs to be carried out in a state of harmony and does not hurt either of them,” he contends in his status update, before citing several Quranic verses supporting his opinion.
Contrary to Harussani’s assertion that there are very few instances where a woman could deny her husband sexual gratification, Dr MAZA countered that a wife in Islam had the right to refuse sex with her husband if there were indications that coitus would involve violence or pain, or if there were medical reasons, such as a wife having to choose whether or not to have intercourse with her HIV-positive husband.
A Muslim wife could also refuse sexual intercourse with her husband if said husband had been derelict in his other obligations, such as providing for the family or staying loyal to his wife/wives.
The noted Islamic scholar even contended that a Muslim husband would need his wife’s consent to even “pull out” before ejaculating, propping that up as further proof that the issue of consent needs to addressed, even in marriage.
So far, the scholar’s take on the issue seems to be getting a lot of support from netizens: with over 4,000 Likes only three hours after the status update was posted, it looks like Harussani might have some trouble convincing Malaysians that his interpretation of Islamic practice denies the existence of a husband forcing himself on his lawfully wedded wife.
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