Domestic violence of wives against their spouses from the perspective of jurisprudence and criminal law

Abstract

Domestic violence is usually studied in legal and criminological literature with a focus on male violence against women; however, in recent years, attention has also been paid to “domestic violence of wives against spouses.” Due to the cultural, religious, and legal structure of Iranian society, this type of violence is rarely seen and is not reported in many cases. The present study, with an interdisciplinary approach, examines domestic violence of wives against spouses from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence and Iranian criminal law. The research method is descriptive-analytical and the data were collected from jurisprudential sources, criminal laws, international documents, and criminological studies. The findings show that, contrary to popular belief, Islamic jurisprudence has considered violence against husbands under various headings—including harassment, insults, beatings, threats, disorder, bad association, and disruption of the family system. In Iranian criminal law, violent behaviors of wives against husbands can also be prosecuted under headings such as intentional assault, insult, threats, destruction, slander, and misconduct. However, legal gaps, cultural barriers, social shame, and weak support mechanisms have led to this type of violence being underreported. Finally, the article presents a model for identifying, preventing, and criminally confronting domestic violence by wives against their spouses.