14 January 2004

BARCELONA – A senior Muslim cleric was handed down a 15-month jail sentence Wednesday for writing a book giving men advice on how to beat up women without leaving a trace.

Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, the imam of a mosque in the southern Spanish city of Fuengirola, was also fined EUR 2,160 when he became the first person found guilty of instigating gender-based violence under a recently-passed law.

A federation of 80 women’s rights groups filed a complaint against Mustafa, one of the most prestigious Muslim clerics based in Spain, for a book he published in 2000 entitled “The Islamic Woman”.

The court heard how the book talks about how men should treat women ‘rebels’.

Mustafa wrote that men should strike their women “on the hands and feet, making sure to use a cudgel that is not too thick so as not to leave permanent scar tissue”.

“Inflict blows that are not too strong nor too hard, because the aim is to make them suffer psychologically and not to humiliate them or mistreat them physically,” he said.

The judges found that the cleric “openly flaunts the principles of equality enshrined in the Constitution, advocating intolerable types of conduct based on sexual discrimination that are liable to criminal prosecution.”

All copies of the book have been seized after an order was made by the judge.

Under Spanish law, however, first-time offenders do not have to serve jail terms of less than two years, so the sentence amounts to probation and a fine.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news