Tatarstan, the imam's ‘advice’ on domestic violence

A video released on the Caucasian republic's official website about ‘beating’ his wife has caused a stir in Russia. Despite 90% of Russians calling for a law to protect women, the bill remains blocked in the Duma.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The official website of the Russian Caucasian republic of Tatarstan, Tatar-Inform, has published a video interview during the programme ‘A Tea with the Khazrat’ with local imam Timur Kamaev, in which the religious representative explains how one should beat one's wife ‘correctly’. In his opinion, one should not ‘start beating immediately, at first one should try exhortations, then refuse to sleep together, so that the woman begins to reflect on the mistakes she is making’. If none of these procedures achieve a result, then it is time to ‘move on to beatings’.

The term ‘beatings’, Kamaev explains, is different from actual ‘blows’, it recurs in the āyāt of the Qur'ān as a method to make the wife realise that she is doing something wrong, and there must be the ‘appropriate gradations: one can use a siwak’ - a light stick - ‘and with that give a couple of small blows in an accurate manner, when the arm moves only from the elbow, not with all the muscles from the shoulder’. The gesture is shown directly by the imam during the interview, also expressing in her face ‘her husband's dissatisfaction at being forced to go to such lengths’.

After the interview, which caused a great scandal, Imam Timur himself contested the interpretation, which he said was ‘taken out of context’, as he had repeatedly said that ‘the woman must not be beaten under any circumstances’. The recommended punishments are, on the contrary, a ‘symbolic’ way of calling his wife to order, and therein lies the meaning of another sentence he uttered, according to which ‘one must strike so as not to leave a mark’. Actual violence ‘is instead condemned by the Koran as a sin’ and women who are victims of violence must immediately report their husbands to the religious and police authorities.

On the website itself, the interview is then accompanied by a sociological survey, according to which almost 90 per cent of Russians actually support the need for a law against domestic violence.
A variant of this has already been debated in the Duma, but was also blocked due to the opposition expressed by religious communities, not only Muslims, but also the Orthodox of the Moscow Patriarchate.

In the parliamentary debate, the leadership asked the deputies not to use the violence of soldiers returning from the front in Ukraine as a topic, but to talk about domestic violence in general, and in any case the discussion was cut off rather abruptly. From the Kremlin come comments hinting at a direct agreement between President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Patriarch Kirill to suspend legislative initiatives on domestic violence.

After the controversial interview with Imam Kamaev, the religious administration of the Muslims of Tatarstan did not deny its representative, but invited people to ‘listen to the full version’ of the conversation, confirming that ‘confirming physical or moral pain is a sin condemned by Islam’. The video was deleted by Tatar-Inform, but spread widely on various other platforms, including YouTube and Telegram, dividing users between critics and supporters.

The chairman of the Patriarchal Commission for Family Matters, Defence of Motherhood and Childhood, Father Fëdor Lukjanov, commented by condemning all forms of violence between spouses, but reiterated that legislative initiatives must not ‘intrude into the sacred space of the family’. On the contrary, since 2017 there has been a law, signed by Putin at the suggestion of Patriarch Kirill, on the ‘de-criminalisation of domestic conflicts’.