![[Video] Palestinian Cleric Sameeh Hajaj Explains Wife-Beating in Islam: Not on the Face, No More than 10 Blows, Avoid Permanent Marks](https://static.europe-israel.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/01/cleric.png)
Palestinian Cleric Dr. Sameeh Hajaj discussed wife-beating in a TV interview, saying that it was permitted as a last resort only, after admonitions and forsaking the wife’s bed had failed. Speaking on the Palestinian Authority’s official TV channel, Hajaj, who according to his Facebook page, holds a Ph.D. in the jurisprudence of shari’a politics and is a preacher with the Ministry of Endowments in Gaza, said that it was permitted to beat the wife only with a “miswak” dental twig or a kerchief, that no more than ten blows were allowed, and that it was forbidden to beat her on the face. “If you want to beat her, beat her on the leg, on the back, on places where it doesn’t leave a permanent mark,” he said in the November 24 interview. “Beatings are intended solely to convey a message to the wife: ‘I’m angry at you. Period! End of story!'”
