Saudi judge: 'It's ok to bitch slap your wife'

Over the weekend, a Saudi Arabian judge declared that husbands can slap their wives on the face if they spend too much money. What's ironic and unnerving about this story, besides the obvious, is that he was speaking at a conference on domestic violence and trying to explain that women were partly to blame for the rise in spousal abuse.

“If a person gives SR1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends SR900 [$240] to purchase an abaya [a full black gown worn mostly with a face veil or head covering] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” the judge said, according to an Arab News account.

Understandably, this has brought the issue of religiously mandated violence against women back into the spotlight. Bloggers have been talking about this story and criticizing the judge's statements. Asra Q. Nomani from the Daily beast calls this issue "part of a continuum of literalist interpretation of the Quran that includes banning women from driving, segregating women, allowing forced marriages of underage girls, and, ultimately, sanctioning intolerance and targeted violence against civilians of the kind perpetuated by Al Qaeda. The way I see it, the Muslim world will be stuck in the dark ages as long as men with ideologies like this judge’s remain in positions of power, just as the West was crippled as long as preachers, judges, and politicians argued that the Bible sanctioned slavery, segregation, and sexism."

I think she makes some interesting comparisons to Western cultures, but she mentions them as if they've been overcome. But I'd argue that, particularly in the case of sexism, we still haven't seen the end of them. While Western laws don't justify outright physical violence towards women, the ongoing debate over abortion is one example where we're still "crippled" by outdated ideologies. And what about gay marriage? I can't think of a more prevalent issue in the Western world that stems from this literalist interpretation of a religious text (this time, the Bible) that Nomani suggests. I think that while we continue to denounce the outrageous Muslim values upheld by people like this Saudi judge, we cannot lose sight of the sexist injustices that are happening right here at home. What do you think?