Rape in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

Typically, apologetic approaches to the issue of slaves and concubines propose that the women mentioned in the Quran and hadiths consented to intercourse with their captors and to their enslavement lest they be left destitute. Critics generally argue that this is highly improbable, point out a hadith in which raped captives were due to be ransomed back to their tribe, and in any case would be incompatible with the modern understanding of consent which could not validly be given in captive circumstances. Some Islamic modernist scholars question the authenticity of the relevant hadiths altogether, in line with their general skepticism towards the hadith corpus and rejection of traditional jurisprudence, and attempt alternative interpretations of the Quranic verses.

By the end of the formative period of Islamic law, there was a consensus that rape was to be categorised as a variant of [[Zina]] (fornication, or unlawful intercourse) in which the coerced woman is spared punishment and the male rapist is punished with the [[w:hadd|hadd]] penalty.<ref name="HinaAzam">Hina Azam [http://www.jstor.org/stable/23645194 RAPE AS A VARIANT OF FORNICATION (ZINĀ) IN ISLAMIC LAW: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EARLY LEGAL REPORTS], Journal of Law and Religion, vol. 28, no. 2, 2012, pp. 441–66</ref> This penalty is [[stoning|stoning to death]] (if he is [[Marriage|married]]) or lashings (if he is unmarried) - just as he would receive for ordinary zina. Four reliable muslim male witnesses (bayyinah) or a confession by the perpetrator are required in order to punish the rapist.<ref name="Al Hakam 2022">{{cite web | title=Rape in Islamic law: Establishing the crime and upholding the rights of the innocent | website=Al Hakam | date=23 January 2022 | url=https://www.alhakam.org/rape-in-islam/ | access-date=2 January 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=R. |last= Peters | year= 2012 | title=Encyclopaedia of Islam | edition= 2nd|publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs|chapter=Zinā or Zināʾ}}</ref> Jurists agreed that there is no punishment for the rape victim. Her word that she was raped is accepted if there is no named perpetrator. If she does name the alleged rapist but is unable to prove the allegation, the Maliki school held the woman liable to receive the hadd penalty of 80 lashes for slander (qadhf), though the judge may spare her this punishment if there is some circumstancial evidence in support of her allegation. Maliki jurists even held that a woman must be punished with the hadd penalty for fornication (zina) if she falls pregnant while unmarried even if she says she was raped, though she is spared punishment if there is evidence of coercion from her physical state or a witness heard her cry for help. In contrast, for the Hanafi school it was enough to avoid punishment if she simply says that she was raped. Hanafis stated that pregnancy of an unmarried woman is not proof of zina, pointing to the principle that hadd punishments are not applied if there is any doubt.<ref>Position paper by Karamah (Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights) [https://karamah.org/zina-rape-and-islamic-law-an-islamic-legal-analysis-of-the-rape-laws-in-pakistan/ Zina, Rape, and Islamic Law: An Islamic Legal Analysis of the Rape Laws in Pakistan](2011)</ref><ref>See the 2nd of the two hadiths here regarding Imam Malik's view: {{Muwatta|41||16}}</ref>