Lebanese Shi‵ites and The Marja‵iyya: Polemic in the Late Twentieth Century

The marja‵iyya (rank of legal exemplar among Twelver Shi‵ites) is part of a complex system of legal guidance, socio-religious management, economic administration and political negotiation at the seminaries, and in local, regional, and international settings. In Lebanon, the crisis of the modern state, the Shi‵ites' ambiguous national position, deterioration of their rural regions, struggle with Israel, and the Civil War (1975–1990), valorized political Shi'ism, and its spokesmen. Common Shi‵ites searched for new readings of spiritual and temporal leadership in modern society. Yet, neither proposals for a hierarchical structuring of the marja‵iyya, nor for its systematization under Iran's vali-ye faqīh (deputy of the jurist), succeeded in gaining majority support in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the muqallidūn (emulators of a marja‵) benefited from the non-institutional base and non-hierarchical character of Shi‵ite legal-spiritual authority of the marja‵iyya to achieve a measure of control over the ‘post’ through the dynamics of civil society. Facing a large number of competing marāji‵(pl. of marja‵), the laity felt empowered to give or withdraw critical support from a potential marja‵ and to defy formal designations of marāji‵ by Najaf and Qum within their locales in Jabal ‵Amil (south Lebanon), the Biqa‵ and Beirut.     

Justification, perception of severity and harm, and criminalization of wife abuse in the Palestinian society

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Palestinian adults toward different dimensions of wife abuse. A cross-sectional survey, using a combination of self-administered questionnaires and interviews, was conducted among a systematic random sample of 624 adult Palestinian men and women from the West Bank and Gaza Strip (18 years or older). Study results indicated a strong tendency to justify wife beating in different situations, such as when the wife is perceived as having an affair with another man or as physically attacking her husband. Participants considered the following acts of husband's violence against wife as most severe: using a weapon (86%), having sex with the wife against her will (67%), and hitting her with his fist (57%). The majority of participants thought that wife beating should be considered a crime (82.3%). Traditional marital role expectations was the main significant predictor for all of the study criterion variables. Gender, place of residence, age, and marital status were significant predictors of some of the criterion variables.     

Attitudes of Jordanian society toward wife abuse

The authors conducted an exploratory study among a convenience sample of 260 Jordanian men and women, using self-administered open and closed questions to examine the participants' approach toward wife abuse. In general, there was high awareness of wife abuse and the different types of abuse (mainly physical and psychological), a general tendency to oppose wife abuse, a tendency to blame the victim for abuse, and a lesser tendency to blame the abuse on the husband, marital problems, as well as familial and societal conditions. There was also a strong tendency to consider wife abuse a personal and familial issue rather than a social and legal problem. Therefore, the preferred method for coping with wife abuse and violence was the expectation that the abused wife should change her behavior and assume responsibility to change her husband followed by resorting to informal agents (family or community or religious figures). Less preferred coping methods included confronting the husband and expressing desire to break up or separate and resorting to formal agents (social welfare programs, counseling, legal system), as a last resort in cases of repeated abuse and severe physical violence. The implications of these findings for future research, interventions, and policy formulation are discussed.