The 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II,
has called for a strong stand against domestic violence, emphasizing that his
daughters are instructed to resist any form of abuse and to defend themselves
if physically attacked by their husbands.
Speaking at the National Dialogue Conference on
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention from an Islamic Perspective, Sanusi
revealed concerning statistics about domestic violence, highlighting that 45%
of cases in the past five years in nine Shari’a courts in Kano were related to
domestic abuse.
The conference, which focused on “Islamic Teachings
and Community Collaboration for Ending Gender-Based Violence,” was organized by
the Centre for Islamic Civilisation and Interfaith Dialogue (CICID) at Bayero
University Kano (BUK), in partnership with the Development Research and
Projects Centre (DRPC) and supported by the Ford Foundation.
In his speech, Sanusi acknowledged the teachings of
Islam, which, when interpreted in the correct context, permit a husband to
lightly discipline his wife under very specific conditions. However, he
condemned the misuse of this allowance, citing cases where domestic violence
was rampant, far exceeding the bounds of light discipline. He said, “You can
take that verse and say that as a husband, I’ve been given this permission to
beat my wife lightly. But when those rules are not followed, when anger overrides
reason, women are slapped, punched, kicked, and beaten without any regard for
the Islamic guidelines.”
Sanusi’s research, conducted for his doctoral thesis
on family law, revealed troubling patterns in the judicial system, particularly
in Kano’s Shari’a courts. Over a five-year period, 41% of cases dealt with
maintenance issues, 26% involved harm, and 45% of those cases were related to
domestic violence, including wife-beating. Sanusi went on to detail the
severity of these cases, describing injuries such as broken limbs, knocked-out
teeth, and women suffering continuous beatings with sticks. He also mentioned
incidents where husbands, together with other wives, would collectively assault
one wife. In some extreme cases, even children were compelled to bring their
fathers to trial for assaulting their mothers. “Not one case of wife-beating
was light,” he remarked.
Sanusi firmly stated that wife-beating, or any form of
violence against women, is unequivocally forbidden in Islam, stressing that it
constitutes harm, and harm, in all forms, must be eradicated. “Beating your
wife, your daughter, or any woman is haram; it is prohibited. Allah commands
that all harm must be removed. Beating, gender-based violence—this is harm—and
it must be removed,” he declared.
Sanusi’s views on this matter have drawn criticism in
some quarters, but he stood by his convictions, particularly when it comes to
the treatment of his own daughters. He explained that when his daughters marry,
he makes it clear to them that no abuse will be tolerated. “If your husband
slaps you and you come home to me and you haven’t slapped him back, I will slap
you myself. I did not send my daughter to marry someone who will slap her. If
he doesn’t like her, let him send her back to me. But don’t beat her,” Sanusi
stated.
He emphasized that the message must be twofold: women
should not tolerate abuse, and men must be taught that violence is never
acceptable. “We must teach our daughters not to accept it, and we must teach
our sons that it is not allowed. We have to raise our children to understand
that violence against another human being, whether it is your brother, your
sister, your son, your daughter, or your wife, violates the basic dignity of a
human being,” he added.
Sanusi’s bold stance has sparked a wider conversation
about domestic violence and its acceptance in certain societal and religious
contexts. His call for a reformation in how men and women understand
gender-based violence aims to foster a more compassionate and just society,
grounded in both Islamic principles and universal human rights.
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