“Return Any Slap From Your Husband” – Emir Sanusi II To Daughters

The 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has expressed strong views against domestic violence, emphasizing the importance of standing up to abuse as he said he had instructed his daughters to return any slap from their husbands.

Speaking at the National Dialogue Conference on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention from an Islamic perspective, he shared his advice to his daughters: if they are ever slapped by their husbands, they should return the slap.

During the conference, Sanusi highlighted alarming data from nine Shari’a courts in Kano, revealing that 45% of cases in these courts over the past five years involved domestic violence. The conference, themed ‘Islamic Teachings and Community Collaboration for Ending Gender-Based Violence,’ was organized by the Centre for Islamic Civilisation and Interfaith Dialogue (CICID) at Bayero University Kano, in collaboration with other partners.

The Emir addressed the misuse of religious texts to justify spousal abuse. He stated, “You can take that verse and say that as a husband, I’ve been given this permission to beat my wife lightly. And nobody will deny that, nobody will say it is haram if you comply with all the rules. But if you live in a society in which those rules are never applied, nobody who is angry remembers to look for a chewing stick or a handkerchief. They just slap these women, punch them, kick them, and beat them.”

Sanusi drew from his research on family law and domestic violence, conducted as part of his doctoral thesis. He revealed, “41% of cases over a five-year period had to do with maintenance, 26% with harm, and 45% with wife beating. Not one case of wife beating was categorized as ‘light.’” He recounted harrowing examples, including women with broken limbs, knocked-out teeth, and constant physical assaults. In some cases, he noted, husbands colluded with their other wives to harm a particular spouse.

The Emir condemned such acts unequivocally, stating, “Beating your wife, daughter, or any woman is prohibited. It is a crime. It is haram. Allah says, ‘All harm must be removed,’ and gender-based violence is harm. It must be removed.”

Emir Sanusi reiterated his personal stance, declaring, “When my daughters are getting married, I tell them, if your husband slaps you and you come home without slapping him back first, I will slap you myself. I did not send my daughter to marry someone so he could slap her. If he doesn’t like her, he should send her back to me. But don’t beat her.”

Sanusi concluded by calling for a cultural shift in raising children. He urged parents to teach their sons that violence is unacceptable and to empower daughters to reject abuse. He emphasized, “We must bring up our children to understand that violence against any person—whether it’s your brother, sister, son, daughter, or wife—violates the dignity of a human being.”

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