Zināʾ (زِنَاء) or zinah (زِنًى or زِنًا) is an Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse.[1] According to traditional jurisprudence, zina can include adultery,[2][3][4] fornication,[2][3][4] prostitution,[5] rape,[1] sodomy,[2][6] homosexuality,[7][6] incest,[8][9] and bestiality.[2][10] Although classification of homosexual intercourse as zina differs according to legal school,[11] the majority apply the rules of zinā to homosexuality,[12][13] mostly male homosexuality,[14] since the Islamic marital law disallows same-sex marriage.
Zina belongs to the category of hudud offenses (sing.: hadd), which are offenses that are specifically mentioned in the Quran, also known as "claims of God" (huqūq Allāh). Several verses of the Quran prohibit zina,
including 24:2 which says it should be punished with 100 lashes, and so
is endorsed by the hadith in the case where both parties were single
and have never been married earlier in their lives.[15] However, on the basis of hadith, the penalty for an offender who is muhsan (adult, free, Muslim, and married at least once) is stoning to death (rajm). Zina
must be proved by testimony of four Muslim eyewitnesses to the actual
act of penetration, or a confession repeated four times and not
retracted later.[16][1] The offenders must have acted of their own free will.[1] Rapists could be prosecuted under different legal categories which used normal evidentiary rules.[17] Making an accusation of zina without presenting the required eyewitnesses is called qadhf (القذف), which is itself a hudud offense.[18]
There are very few recorded examples of the stoning penalty for zinā
being implemented legally. Prior to legal reforms introduced in several
countries during the 20th century, the procedural requirements for
proving the offense of zinā to the standard necessary to impose the stoning penalty were effectively impossible to meet [1][19] Zina became a more pressing issue in modern times, as Islamist movements and governments employed polemics against public immorality.[1] The Taliban have executed suspected adultresses using machine guns, and zina has been used as justification for honor killings.[1]
After sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by
European-inspired statutes in the modern era, in recent decades several
countries passed legal reforms that incorporated elements of hudud laws
into their legal codes; many modern Islamists have also disregarded the
condition of strict evidence requirements.[20] In Nigeria, local courts have passed several stoning sentences, all of which were overturned on appeal or left unenforced.[21] In Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 subsumed prosecution of rape under the category of zina,
making rape extremely difficult to prove and exposing the victims to
jail sentences for admitting illicit intercourse forced upon them,[1][17] although these laws were amended in 2006,[19] and again in 2016.[22] According to human rights organizations, stoning for zina has also been carried out in Saudi Arabia.[11].
Muslim scholars have historically considered zinā a hudud sin, or crime against God.[23] It is mentioned in both Quran and in the Hadiths.[24]
Introduction and definition
The Quran deals with zinaʾ in several places. First is the Qur'anic general rule that commands Muslims not to commit zina':
"Nor come nigh to fornication/adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils)."
— Qur'an, Sura 17 (Al-Isra), ayat 32[25]
In the Hadiths, the definitions of zina have been described as all the forms of sexual intercourse, penetrative or non-penetrative, outside the institution marriage or the institution of slavery.[26]
Abu Huraira reported Allah's
Apostle as saying: “Allah has decreed for every son of Adam his share of
zina, which he will inevitably commit. The zina of the eyes is looking,
the zina of the tongue is speaking, one may wish and desire, and the
private parts confirm that or deny it.”
Adultery and fornication
Quran
Most
of the rules related to fornication, adultery and false accusations
from a husband to his wife or from members of the community to chaste
women, can be found in Surat an-Nur (the Light). The sura starts by giving very specific rules about punishment for zina:
"The woman and the man guilty of
zināʾ (for fornication or adultery),- flog each of them with a hundred
stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter
prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a
party of the Believers witness their punishment."
"And those who accuse chaste women
then do not bring four witnesses, flog them, (giving) eighty stripes,
and do not admit any evidence from them ever; and these it is that are
the transgressors. Except those who repent after this and act aright,
for surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."
— Qur'an, Sura 24 (An-Nur), ayat 4–5[28]
The public lashing and public lethal stoning punishment for fornication and adultery are also prescribed in Hadiths, the books most trusted in Islam after Quran, particularly in Kitab Al-Hudud.[29][30][not specific enough to verify]
'Ubada b. as-Samit reported:
Allah's Messenger as saying: Receive teaching from me, receive teaching
from me. Allah has ordained a way for those women. When an unmarried
male commits adultery with an unmarried female, they should receive one
hundred lashes and banishment for one year. And in case of married male
committing adultery with a married female, they shall receive one
hundred lashes and be stoned to death.
Ma'iz came to the Prophet and
admitted having committed adultery four times in his presence so he
ordered him to be stoned to death, but said to Huzzal: If you had
covered him with your garment, it would have been better for you.
Hadith Sahih al Bukhari, another authentic source of sunnah, has several entries which refer to death by stoning.[31] For example,
Narrated 'Aisha: 'Utba bin Abi
Waqqas said to his brother Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas, "The son of the slave
girl of Zam'a is from me, so take him into your custody." So in the year
of Conquest of Mecca, Sa'd took him and said. (This is) my brother's
son whom my brother has asked me to take into my custody." 'Abd bin
Zam'a got up before him and said, (He is) my brother and the son of the
slave girl of my father, and was born on my father's bed." So they both
submitted their case before Allah's Apostle. Sa'd said, "O Allah's
Apostle! This boy is the son of my brother and he entrusted him to me."
'Abd bin Zam'a said, "This boy is my brother and the son of the slave
girl of my father, and was born on the bed of my father." Allah's
Apostle said, "The boy is for you, O 'Abd bin Zam'a!" Then Allah's
Apostle further said, "The child is for the owner of the bed, and the
stone is for the adulterer," He then said to Sauda bint Zam'a, "Veil
(screen) yourself before him," when he saw the child's resemblance to
'Utba. The boy did not see her again till he met Allah.
Other hadith collections on zina between men and woman include:
- The stoning (Rajm) of a Jewish man and woman for having committed illegal sexual intercourse.[32]
- Abu Hurairah states that the Prophet, in a case of intercourse between a young man and a married woman, sentenced the woman to stoning[33] and the young man to flogging and banishment for a year;
Rape
Rape has been defined as zina al-zibr (forceful illicit sex) in the traditional Islamic texts. Few hadiths
have been found regarding rape in the time of Muhammad. The most
popular transmitted hadith given below indicates the ordinance of
stoning for the rapist but no punishment and no requirement of four
eyewitnesses for the rape victim.[34][35]
Narrated 'Alqamah bin Wa'il
Al-Kindi:
From his father: "A women went out during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) to
go to Salat, but she was caught by a man and he had relations with her,
so she screamed and he left. Then a man came across her and she said:
'That man has done this and that to me', then she came across a group of
Emigrants (Muhajirin) and she said: 'That man did this and that to me.'
They went to get the man she thought had relations with her, and they
brought him to her. She said: 'Yes, that's him.' So they brought him to
the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and when he ordered that he be stoned, the
man who had relations with her, said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I am the
one who had relations with her.' So he said to her: 'Go, for Allah has
forgiven you.' Then he said some nice words to the man (who was
brought). And he said to the man who had relations with her: 'Stone
him.' Then he said: 'He has repented a repentance that, if the
inhabitants of Al-Madinah had repented with, it would have been accepted
from them.'"
The hadiths declare rape of a free or slave woman as zina.[36]
View of scholars
Malik
related to me from Nafi that a slave was in charge of the slaves in the
khumus and he forced a slave-girl among those slaves against her will
and had intercourse with her. Umar ibn al-Khattab had him flogged and
banished him, and he did not flog the slave-girl because the slave had
forced her.
Malik related to me from Ibn Shihab
that gave a judgment that the rapist had to pay the raped woman her
bride-price. Yahya said that he heard Malik say, "What is done in our
community about the man who rapes a woman, virgin or non-virgin, if she
is free, is that he must pay the bride-price of the like of her. If she
is a slave, he must pay what he has diminished of her worth. The
hadd-punishment in such cases is applied to the rapist, and there is no
punishment applied to the raped woman. If the rapist is a slave, that is
against his master unless he wishes to surrender him."
If a confession or the four witnesses required to prove a hadd crime are not available, but rape can be proved by other means, the rapist is sentenced under the ta'zir system of judicial discretion.[38] According to the eleventh-century Maliki jurist Ibn 'Abd al-Barr:[38]
The scholars are unanimously agreed
that the rapist is to be subjected to the hadd punishment if there is
clear evidence against him that he deserves the hadd punishment, or if
he admits to that. Otherwise, he is to be punished (i.e., if there is no
proof that the hadd punishment for zina may be carried out against him
because he does not confess, and there are not four witnesses, then the
judge may punish him and stipulate a punishment that will deter him and
others like him). There is no punishment for the woman if it is true
that he forced her and overpowered her, which may be proven by her
screaming and shouting for help.
— Al-Istidhkaar
Homosexuality
Islamic teachings (in the hadith tradition[39]) presume same-sex attraction, extol abstention and (in the Qur'an[40][39]) condemn consummation. The Quran forbids homosexual relationships,
in Al-Nisa, Al-Araf (verses 7:80–84, 11:69–83, 29:28–35 of the Quran
using the story of Lot's people), and other surahs. For example,[40][39][41]
We also sent Lot: He said to his
people: "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever)
committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to
women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds."
In another verse, the statement of prophet Lot has been also pointed out,
Do you approach males among the
worlds And leave what your Lord has created for you as mates? But you
are a people transgressing.
Some scholars indicate this verse as the prescribed punishment for homosexuality in the Quran:
"If two (men) among you are guilty
of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, Leave them
alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful."
However, there are different interpretations of the last verse where
who the Quran refers to as "two among you". Pakistani scholar Javed Ahmed Ghamidi
sees it as a reference to premarital sexual relationships between men
and women. In his opinion, the preceding Ayat of Sura Nisa deals with
prostitutes of the time. He believes these rulings were temporary and
were abrogated later when a functioning state was established and
society was ready for permanent rulings, which came in Sura Nur, Ayat 2
and 3, prescribing flogging as a punishment for adultery. He does not
see stoning as a prescribed punishment, even for married men, and
considers the Hadiths quoted supporting that view to be dealing with
either rape or prostitution, where the strictest punishment under Islam
for spreading "fasad fil ardh", meaning corruption in the land,
referring to egregious acts of defiance to the rule of law was carried
out.[citation needed]
The Hadiths consider homosexuality as zina,[7] and male homosexuality to be punished with death.[43] For example, Abu Dawud states,[39][not specific enough to verify][44][page needed]
From Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, the
Prophet states that: "If a woman comes upon a woman, they are both
adulteresses, if a man comes upon a man, then they are both adulterers.”
— Al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Awat: 4157, Al-Bayhaqi, Su‘ab al-Iman: 5075
Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: The Prophet said: If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did,[45] kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.
Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: If a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death.
The discourse on homosexuality in Islam is primarily concerned with
activities between men. There are, however, a few hadith mentioning
homosexual behavior in women;[46][47]
The jurists are agreed that "there is no hadd punishment for
lesbianism, because it is not zina. Rather a ta’zeer punishment must be
imposed, because it is a sin..'".[48] Although punishment for lesbianism is rarely mentioned in the histories, al-Tabari records an example of the casual execution of a pair of lesbian slavegirls in the harem of al-Hadi, in a collection of highly critical anecdotes pertaining to that Caliph's actions as ruler.[49] Some jurists viewed sexual intercourse as possible only for an individual who possesses a phallus;[50] hence those definitions of sexual intercourse that rely on the entry of as little of the corona of the phallus into a partner's orifice.[50]
Since women do not possess a phallus and cannot have intercourse with
one another, they are, in this interpretation, physically incapable of
committing zina.[50]
Sodomy
Muslim scholars justify the prohibition of sodomy,
anal sex (liwat) and oral sex, on the basis of the Qur'anic verse
2:223, saying that it commands intercourse only in the vagina (i.e.
potentially procreational intercourse). The vaginal intercourse may be
in any manner the couple wishes, that is, from behind or from the front,
sitting or with the wife lying on her back or on her side.
There are also several hadith which prohibit sodomy.
Do not have anal sex with women.
— Reported by Ahmad, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah
Muhammad also said, "Cursed he. ..who has sex with a woman through her back passage."
— Ahmad
Khuzaymah Ibn Thabit also reported
that the Messenger of Allah said: "Allah is not too shy to tell you the
truth: Do not have sex with your wives in the anus."
— Reported by Ahmad, 5/213
Ibn Abbas narrated: "The Messenger of Allah said: "Allah will not look at a man who has anal sex with his wife."
— Reported by Ibn Abi Shaybah, 3/529; At-Tirmidhi classified it as an authentic hadith, 1165
It is reported that `Umar Ibn
Al-Khattab came one day to Muhammad and said, "O Messenger of Allah, I
am ruined!" "What has ruined you?" asked the Prophet. He replied, "Last
night I turned my wife over," meaning that he had had vaginal
intercourse with her from the back. The Prophet did not say anything to
him until the verse cited above was revealed. Then he told him, "[Make
love with your wife] from the front or the back, but avoid the anus and
intercourse during menstruation."
— (Reported by Ahmad and At-Tirmidhi)[51]
Furthermore, it is reported that Muhammad referred to anal sex as "minor incest".
Islamic law establishes two categories of legal, sexual
relationships: between husband and wife, and between a man and his
concubine. All other sexual relationships are considered zināʾ (fornication), including adultery and homosexuality, according to Islamic law and exegesis of the Qur'an. From the story of Lot
it is clear that the Qur'an regards sodomy as an egregious sin. The
death by stoning for people of Sodom and Gomorrah is similar to the
stoning punishment stipulated for illegal heterosexual sex. There is no
punishment for a man who sodomizes a woman because it is not tied to
procreation. However, other jurists insist that any act of lust in which
the result is the injecting of semen into another person constitutes
sexual intercourse.[52]
In Islam, oral sex between a husband and a wife is considered "Makruh Tahrimi"[53]
or highly undesirable by some Islamic jurists when the act is defined
as the mouth and the tongue coming in contact with the genitals.[54][55] The reason behind considering this act as not recommended is manifold, the foremost being the issues of modesty, purification (Taharat) and cleanliness.[56]
The most common argument states[55] that the mouth and tongue are used for the recitation of the Quran and for the remembrance of Allah (Dhikr).[57]
Firstly, scholars consider touching genitals by mouth as discouraged
mentioning the reason that, touching genitals by the right hand rather
than the left hand has been prohibited by Muhammad;
as in their opinion, the mouth is comparatively more honorable than the
right hand, for that touching genitals with the mouth is more abhorrent
and vacatably excluded. Secondly, the status of genital secretions is
debated among the four Sunni schools, some scholars viewing it as impure and others not.
Currently, sodomy is punishable by death in a number of Muslim
countries, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen, as well as in Nigeria's
Sharia courts.[50]
Incest
Hadith forbids incestous relationship (zinā bi'l-mahārim), sexual intercourse between someone who is mahram and prescribes execution as punishment.[8][9]
Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: That the
Prophet said: "If a man says to another man: 'O you Jew' then beat him
twenty times. If he says: 'O you effeminate' then beat him twenty times.
And whoever has relations with someone that is a Mahram (family member or blood relative) then kill him."
Masturbation
Islamic scripture does not specifically mention masturbation. There are a few Hadiths mentioning it, but these are classified as unreliable.[58]
Bestiality
According to hadith, bestiality is defined under zina and its punishment is execution of the accused man or woman along with the animal.[2][10]
Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: That the
Messenger of Allah said: "Whomever you see having relations with an
animal then kill him and kill animal." So it was said to Ibn 'Abbas:
"What is the case of the animal?" He said: "I did not hear anything from
the Messenger of Allah about this, but I see that the Messenger of
Allah disliked eating its meat or using it, due to the fact that such a
(heinous) thing has been done with that animal."
Inclusions in the definition
Zina encompasses any sexual intercourse except that between husband and wife. It includes both extramarital sex and premarital sex, and is often translated as "fornication" in English.[59]
Technically, zina only refers to the act of penetration,
while non-penetrative sex acts outside of marriage were censured by the
Prophet as that which can lead to zina.[11][60]
According to sharia, the punishment for zina varies according to whether the offender is muhsan (adult, free, Muslim and married at least once) or not muhsan (i.e. a minor, a slave, a non-Muslim or never married). A person only qualifies as muhsan if he or she meets all of the criteria. The punishment for an offender who is muhsan is stoning. (rajm); the punishment for an offender who is not muhsan is 100 lashes.
[61]
Accusation process and punishment
Islamic law requires evidence before a man or a woman can be punished for zina. These are:[59][page needed][29][62]
- A Muslim confesses to zina four separate times. However,
if the confessor takes back his words before the punishment is enforced
or during the punishment, he/she will be released and set free. The
confessor is in fact encouraged to take back their confession.[63][64][65]
- Four free adult male Muslim witnesses of proven integrity. They must
testify that they observed the couple engaged in unlawful sexual
intercourse without any doubt or ambiguity. They are able to say that
they saw their private parts meet "like the Kohl needle entering the
Kohl bottle."[63]
- Unlike witnesses in most other circumstances, they are neither
legally nor morally obliged to testify, and in fact legal texts state
that it is morally better if they don't.
- If any of the witnesses take back their testimony before the actual
punishment is enforced, then the punishment will be abandoned, and the
witnesses will be punished for the crime of false accusation.[63]
- The witnesses must give their testimony at the earliest opportunity.[63]
- If the offense is punished by stoning to death, the witnesses must throw the stones.
If a pregnant woman confesses that her baby was born from an illegal
relationship then she will be subject to conviction in the Islamic
courts. In cases where there are no witnesses and no confession then the
woman will not receive punishment just because of pregnancy. Women can
fall pregnant without committing illegal sexual intercourse. A woman
could be raped or coerced. In this case, she is a victim and not the
perpetrator of a crime. Therefore, she cannot be punished or even
accused of misconduct merely on the strength of her falling pregnant.[65][66][67]
The four witnesses requirement for zina is revealed by Quranic verses 24:11 through 24:13 and various hadiths.[68][69] The testimony of women and non-Muslims is not admitted in cases of zina or in other hadd crimes.
Any witness to or victim of non-consensual sexual intercourse, who accuses a Muslim of zina, but fails to produce four adult, pious male eyewitnesses before a sharia court, commits the crime of false accusation (Qadhf, القذف), punishable with eighty lashes in public.[70][71]
These requirements made zina virtually impossible to prove in practice.[1] Hence, there are very few recorded examples of stoning for zina being legally carried out.[1][19]
In the 623-year history of the Ottoman Empire, the best-documented and
most well-known pre-modern Islamic legal system, there is only one
recorded example of the stoning punishment being applied for zina, when a Muslim woman and her Jewish lover were convicted of zina
in 1680 and sentenced to death, the woman by stoning and the man by
beheading. This was a miscarriage of justice according to the standards
of Islamic law: adequate evidence was not produced, and the correct
penalty for non-Muslims was 100 lashes rather than death.[72]
Some schools of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) created the principle of shubha
(doubt). According to this principle, if there is room for doubt in the
perpetrator's mind about whether the sexual act was illegal, he or she
should not receive the hadd penalty, but could receive a less severe
punishment at the discretion of the judge.[29]
Jurists had varying opinions on what counted as legitimate "doubt" for
this purposes. A typical example is a man who has sex with his wife's or
his son's slave. This is zina - a man can lawfully have sex only
with his own slave. But a man might plausibly believe that he had
ownership rights over his wife's or his son's property, and so think
that having sex with their slaves was legal. The Ḥanafī jurists of the
Ottoman Empire applied the concept of doubt to exempt prostitution from
the hadd penalty. Their rationale was that since legal sex is
legitimized, in part, by payment (the dower paid by the husband to the
wife upon marriage, or the purchase price of a slave), a man might
plausibly believe that prostitution, which also involves a payment in
return for sexual access, was legal.[73]
It is important to note that this principle did not mean that such acts
were treated as legal: they remained offenses, and could be punished,
but they were not liable for the hadd penalty of 100 lashes or stoning.
Sunni practice
All Sunni schools of jurisprudence agree that zināa is to be punished with stoning to death if the offender is a free, adult, married or previously married Muslim (muhsan). Persons who are not muhsan (i.e. a slave, a minor, never married or non-Muslim) are punished for zina with one hundred lashes in public.[44][page needed][74]
Maliki
school of Islamic jurisprudence considers pregnancy as sufficient and
automatic evidence, unless there is evidence of rape. Other Sunni
schools of jurisprudence rely on early Islamic scholars that state that a
fetus can "sleep and stop developing for 5 years in a womb", and thus a
woman who was previously married but now divorced may not have
committed zina even if she delivers a baby years after her divorce.[75]
They also argue that the woman may have been forced or coerced (see
section above, 'Accusation process and punishment').The position of
modern Islamic scholars varies from country to country. For example, in Malaysia which officially follows the Shafi'i fiqh, Section 23(2) through 23(4) of the Syariah (Sharia) Criminal Offences (Federal Territories) Act 1997 state,[76]
Section 23(2) - Any woman
who performs sexual intercourse with a man who is not her lawful husband
shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a
fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding three years or to whipping not exceeding six strokes or to
any combination thereof.
Section 23(3) - The fact that a woman is pregnant out of wedlock as a result of sexual intercourse performed with her consent shall be prima facie evidence of the commission of an offence under subsection (2) by that woman.
Section 23(4) - For the purpose of subsection (3), any woman
who gives birth to a fully developed child within a period of six
qamariah months from the date of her marriage shall be deemed to have
been pregnant out of wedlock.
— Islamic Laws of Malaysia[77]
Minimal proof for zina is still the testimony of four male eyewitnesses, even in the case of homosexual intercourse.[citation needed]
Prosecution of extramarital pregnancy as zina, as well as prosecution of rape victims for the crime of zina, have been the source of worldwide controversy in recent years.[78][79]
Shi'a practice
Again, minimal proof for zina is the testimony of four male eyewitnesses. The Shi'is, however, also allow the testimony of women, if there is at least one male witness, testifying together with six women.
All witnesses must have seen the act in its most intimate details, i.e.
the penetration (like "a stick disappearing in a kohl container," as
the fiqh books specify). If their testimonies do not satisfy the
requirements, they can be sentenced to eighty lashes for unfounded
accusation of fornication (kadhf). If the accused freely admits the
offense, the confession must be repeated four times, just as in Sunni practice. Pregnancy of a single woman is also sufficient evidence of her having committed zina.
Human rights controversy
The zina and rape laws of countries under Sharia law are the subjects of a global human rights debate.[82][83]
Hundreds of women in Afghan jails are victims of rape or domestic violence.[79]
This has been criticized as leading to "hundreds of incidents where a
woman subjected to rape, or gang rape, was eventually accused of zināʾ"
and incarcerated.[84]
In Pakistan, over 200,000 zina cases against women, under its Hudood laws, were under process at various levels in Pakistan's legal system in 2005.[78] In addition to thousands of women in prison awaiting trial for zina-related charges, there has been a severe reluctance to even report rape because the victim fears of being charged with zina.[85][not specific enough to verify]
Iran has prosecuted many cases of zina, and enforced public stoning to death of those accused between 2001 and 2010.[86][87]
Zina laws are one of many items of reform and secularization debate with respect to Islam.[88][89]
In the early 20th century, under the influence of colonial era, many
penal laws and criminal justice systems were reformed away from Sharia
in Muslim-majority parts of the world. In contrast, in the second half
of the 20th century, after respective independence, a number of
governments including Pakistan, Morocco, Malaysia and Iran have reverted
to Sharia with traditional interpretations of Islam's sacred texts. Zina and hudud laws have been re-enacted and enforced.[90]
Contemporary human right activists refer this as a new phase in
the politics of gender in Islam, the battle between forces of
traditionalism and modernism in the Muslim world, and the use of
religious texts of Islam through state laws to sanction and practice
gender-based violence.[91][92]
In contrast to human rights activists, Islamic scholars and
Islamist political parties consider 'universal human rights' arguments
as imposition of a non-Muslim culture on Muslim people, a disrespect of
customary cultural practices and sexual codes that are central to Islam.
Zina laws come under hudud – seen as crime against Allah; the Islamists refer to this pressure and proposals to reform zina
and other laws as contrary to Islam. Attempts by international human
rights to reform religious laws and codes of Islam has become the
Islamist rallying platforms during political campaigns.[93][94]
