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Babylon & Beyond

MIDDLE EAST: An eye for an eye?

By Jeffrey FleishmanStaff Writer 
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Muslim clerics have long differed over fatwas regarding the rights of women. An endless litany of religious edicts speak to ancient tribal beliefs over property, children and sex to technology-related dilemmas, such as can a husband divorce his wife by merely sending her the news via SMS. A blurb in the current edition of Egypt Today highlights yet another set of conflicting fatwas. The headline is: An Eye For An Eye.

‘A few eyebrows went up around the Muslim world,’ the magazine reports, ‘when Hezbollah spiritual leader Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah issued a fatwa allowing wives to retaliate for any act their husbands perform, even if it means causing permanent physical injury. Al-Azhar [Egypt’s Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs] promptly opposed the fatwa, but Fadlallah responded by saying that if a husband was to poke his wife’s eye out, no one could blame her if she does the same to him. While Fadlallah argues that God has ordered Muslims to fight back and stand up for their rights, Al-Azhar refused to accept the Shiite cleric’s reasoning, maintaining that marital relationships do not allow vendettas.’

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Babylon & Beyond
Jeffrey Fleishman

Jeffrey Fleishman is a senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was the foreign and national editor. A 2002 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Fleishman was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. A longtime foreign correspondent, he served as bureau chief for The Times in Cairo and Berlin, and was previously based in Rome for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also was a writer on film, art and culture. Fleishman has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a finalist for the Center for Public Integrity’s Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. He is the author of five novels, including “Good Night, Forever” and “Last Dance.”

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