Beating a Rebellious Wife

Among the controversial verses in the field of family law in the Holy Quran is verse 34 of Surah al-Nisāʼ regarding the treatment of rebellious wives. The physical punishment of rebellious women in this verse has been criticized. Therefore, contemporary exegetes have each sought to justify it in their own way. In the midst of this, some exegetes and Quranic scholars, based on certain narrations, have considered the meaning of a wife's rebellion ( Nushūz ) and the subsequent permissibility of beating her to be related to committing immorality and defilement, rather than the refusal of sexual relations. With slight differences in its scope, this group has presented views on this matter based on some narrations. For example: "The permissibility of beating a rebellious wife is specific to cases of committing immorality, including both adultery and other forms, or the beating of a rebellious wife is specific to defilement less than adultery." These views face challenges both in terms of their reliance on narrations and their incompatibility with other established principles of criminal law for women who commit immorality. The goal of the present research is to respond to the view that permits the beating of rebellious women due to committing immorality, which was conducted using a descriptive-analytical processing method and a library-based information gathering approach. Based on the selected view, rebellion in the verse under discussion means challenging the guardianship of men and rebelling and seeking superiority against the husband, not committing immorality.