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Muhammad Bakar Yunus Al-Fallatta
From Arab News, with thanks to Jay Stevens, an update on the Rania Al-Baz wife-beating case:
JEDDAH, 21 April 2004 — Muhammad Bakar Yunus Al-Fallatta, who almost beat his wife Rania Al-Baz to death two weeks ago, has surrendered to police, according to the prominent TV presenter.Rania told Arab News that her husband who is facing charges of attempted murder, surrendered to police on Monday night. Al-Fallatta, who was carrying a prayer rug, told police he had acted in a jealous rage, she said.
This could mean the charges would be reduced from attempted murder to wife battery, which carries a lighter sentence.
He will remain in custody until he is seen by a judge in four weeks’ time.
The judge will decide in one sitting what happens to Al-Fallatta and also whether to grant Rania a divorce and, if he does, who gets custody of the children.
“They only questioned him for 15 minutes but did not take my statement. Nobody called me yet,” Rania said.
On April 4, Al-Fallatta attacked his wife by pinning her to the floor and repeatedly smashing her face into the marble tiles and the walls while choking her.
According to Rania, he stopped only to give her time to recite the shahada, “because,” he said, “I am going to kill you.”
The shahada is the Islamic profession of faith: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."
When she regained consciousness, she found herself in the back of the couple’s van. Her moans apparently frightened Al-Fallatta, who dumped her at the gate of Jeddah’s Bugshan Hospital.Doctors said she sustained 13 fractures to her face and stood a 70 percent chance of a full recovery but needed numerous operations.
Rania yesterday said she was afraid for her and her children’s lives. She said there are hospital records that show that he had smashed her in the forehead last year, requiring her to be stitched. Al-Fallatta has also hit his five-year old son in the past. “He hit him so hard that he almost ruptured his ear drum. His face was swollen for a few days,” she told Arab News.
He has also abducted the children and prevented her from seeing them for two months, she said. When she complained to police they told her since the children were with their father there was nothing they could do.
Under Sharia law, women have no rights in such matters.
She said there were no security guards outside her house despite the fact that Princess Sara Al-Angari, the wife of Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, had ordered 24-hour security for her.Rania said she stayed with Al-Fallatta through all these years because she was afraid she would not be given custody of her children if she obtained a divorce, fearing the Kingdom’s judiciary were not sympathetic to working women, especially those working in television.
The National Human Rights Commission, one of whose members visited Rania in hospital last week, had told her they could do nothing for her until a judge had ruled on the case.
When Rania’s story hit the headlines last week, it shocked Saudis into openly talking about one of the Kingdom’s long-hidden problems: Violence against women.
The case was widely discussed both in the Kingdom and in the international press.
Rania was hailed for letting newspaper photographers snap pictures of her face and for frankly discussing her case.
Rania, well known for her chatty, magazine style show “The Kingdom This Morning,” at the time said she wants to use her experience to publicize the plight of battered women in the Kingdom.
But she told Arab News she was not entirely happy with the turn the debate took. Some commentators had suggested there must be a reason why Al-Fallatta beat her.
Posted by Robert at April 21, 2004 9:14 AM
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Robert:
I've lent my U a-S to my old Mum. Could you pls. post here the specific references in the sharia'h in such cases of spousal assault, so that I might both bring this story to her attention, and also the misogynistic islamic principles that will used in the husband's defence.
Thx.
E
Posted by: Earl at April 21, 2004 9:26 AMEarl, happy to oblige.
See of course Sura 4:34.
"If she commits rebelliousness, he keeps from sleeping with her without words, and may hit her, but not in a way that injures her, meaning he may not break bones, wound her, or cause blood to flow." 'Umdat as-Salik m10.12. I left out the glosses. See also m10.12(4)(d).
Posted by: Robert Spencer at April 21, 2004 9:42 AMAlso MEMRI has a excellent article on this issue of "correcting/beating your wife".
jihan
Posted by: jihan at April 21, 2004 9:50 AMThey talk endlessly about reform, but nothing will happen. The authority of the Koran is too great. I will be greatly surprised if any meaningful changes comes of this.
Did you notice that not even a "Princess" could protect her from her husband, and public opinion is mounting against her as they are wondering what she might have to do DESERVE the beating, the same argument we used to use against wife beaters by Western husbands: blame the victim. "She made me do it!" was the old cry by those that refused to own their emotions.
M.E. men refuse to be responsible for any impulse control whenit comes to their libido or their emotional rages when it comes to women. The Koran has failed to make them decent human beings. I am was surprised to learn that so much of their lives are tied up in ritualistic hogwash that lead to nothing. Some of that energy could have spent creating rituals that could have taught them impulse control and anger management. But, then, the Prophet was the model, and he didn't control his libido, his impusles, or even his anger.
Of course there's a reason why he beat her. He's a male, she is his chattel, and the Koran of Islam says that is his right to beat her; in the same way, it tells him that she is his field to be ploughed as he sees it.
It's amazing, a society which has no respect for women and in which women are not protected from abuse.
Posted by: Helen at April 21, 2004 11:13 AMA beer will get you 80 lashes ? What does nearly beating your wife to death get you in these places ?
". . .What does nearly beating your wife to death get you in these places ? . . "
A slap on the wrist if that. Wait and see. This guy will walk. She will be blamed and lose her children. Even if he murders her or one of "his" children it will be construed to be "her fault."
• Mohammed said, "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers are women. " Vol. 1:28, 301; Vol. 2:161; Vol. 7:124
• Mohammed said, " Bad omen is in the woman, the house and the horse." Vol. 7:30
• Mohammed said, "After me I have not left any affliction more harmful to men than women." Vol. 7:33
Lili
Posted by: Lilith at April 21, 2004 2:14 PMI had a flash of insight when I read that the people were mostly curious about what the beaten woman had done to DESERVE IT.
Isn't that what naive and self-hating Americans asked when the Towers were brought down? "What did the US do wrong? Why do they hate us?"
When people have been 'civilized' for so long and protected from outright violence by the rule of law and military strength, they have a very difficult time imagining that there are those who have an agenda of hatred against them.
The horror of 9/11 caused people to wake up for a moment and wonder, "What is going on?" What was THAT all about? But then, because their life is so soft and 'busy', they snooze again or start trying to find blame inside their own group for the horror that happened.
But the next time...maybe they will start to understand that the 'bully on the playground' doesn't have to be directly provoked - the bully just wants to get his way. Period. He wants your school money, he wants you to fear him and obey him. Don't ask why or what you did wrong.
Ask how you are going to protect yourself.
Some people on other sites have posted complaining this story is misleading. Domestic abuse is world wide. Of course this is true, but Islam actually has regulations that do not say 'don't beat your wife' but how to go about it. Anyone who thinks that this mans religion had nothing to do with his actions should take note of his teling her to say the Shahada as he was going to kill her.
Posted by: peter at April 21, 2004 3:01 PMTo tell the true, I would not waste my sympathies on saudi women being beaten up. Save them for the poor philipino, Sri Lankan, India, Bangladeshi maids who are daily enslaved and physically abused by these bitches.
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Posted by: Moon at April 22, 2004 5:55 PMDear Moon - The story is set in Saudi Arabia, but it is really about universal Islam which allows this type of abuse to be made against women. Only in Western lands where Muslim women have settled do they have SOME protection by law, but by custom, they are still chattel and are abused behind closed doors and behind the veil.
As for the poor maids. Yes, indeed, they are abused by Muslim women because they are not Muslim, and thus not worthy of respect. Anger and frustration is another reason why Muslim women might abuse their maids as they have to act out their rage to someone less powerful than they are, and the only powerless candidates are other women and girls, especially non-Muslim women and girls. Then of course, we talk about the abuse heaped upon these poor maids by the Muslim husbands. Well, maybe not, you already know the answer.
Dear Epq,
You are a much better person than I am. I have nothing but contempt for these people (saudis). A lot of women are battered by the husbands around the world. Take any country in South America and you will find that a lot of women there are abused by their husbands (macho society and such) but South American women do not take it out on their maids. The problem with saudi women and men is that, they think the are superior and have a divine right to treat other human beings (special non-muslims and no- so equal muslims- Blacks, Indonesians, Pakistanis, etc) like animals. All I can say is, that this is one sick society and I cannot wait to get the hell out of here!
Posted by: Moon at April 23, 2004 3:03 AMCorrection: "they think the are superior"
Should read: "they think, they are superior"
I say we let Muhammed Ali's daughter take a crack at this guy and see if he still feels superior.
For those who may not know, Muhammed Ali is a famous professional American boxer whose youngest daughter, Laila Ali, has become a professional boxer as well. Muhammed Ali converted to Islam many years ago, and I assume Laila was raised in the faith.
She is also, coincidentally, extremely beautiful. I, for one, would pay a LOT to see her go a couple of rounds with this, uh, individual (for lack of a better word to use in polite company). Hmmmm, I see a pay-per-view special in the making.
Note to self: call HBO to discuss idea for pay-per-view boxing special.
Posted by: Jill R at April 26, 2004 6:17 PMAmerican men behave the same way. Our hospitals are full of women who look just like this woman's sickbed picture. If American men could get away with it, they would run in packs, assaulting and raping women right out in the open and probably children too. We all know men rape their own children every day in this country also. The only thing that stops them are our laws which are not nearly enough to protect women and children. These things are true of men world wide. This is who they are and this is what they do. They have something missing in their physical makeup. The only good thing about this is Karma. They will pay in the end.
Posted by: lynnann at April 29, 2004 2:45 AM
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