Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
- Internet Edition
Date: March 31, 2002
In a judgement that may upset advocates
of women's rights, a Dubai court has ruled that a man can beat his wife
to discipline her provided the punishment should not damage her bones or
deform her.
The Court also held that a woman
may ask her husband for a divorce if he injures her, either by words or
actions and granted a woman divorce and maintenance, the Gulf News Daily
said.
The Court ruling came on a divorce
petition filed by a woman, in which she asked that she be permitted to
divorce her husband because he often beat her in front of her children
and the housemaid.
The Court ordered the husband to
pay a monthly maintenance of Dh2,000 (Rs 26,000) besides the remaining
amount of her dowry - Dh5,000. She has also been granted custody of their
two sons.
She had alleged that her husband
beat her on different parts of her body and used electric cable, wood to
abuse her physically.
Not content with that, he allegedly
cursed and dishonoured her. The woman claimed that her husband had not
paid for her upkeep for more than a year, although he was financially capable.