From now on, you can beat Russian women.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a controversial law amendment that will decriminalize domestic violence and reduce its punishment.
The amendment, which was passed by both houses of parliament on Tuesday, February 7, and signed by Putin the same day, has sparked controversy. Critics say it sends the wrong message in a country where, according to some statistics, a woman is killed every 40 minutes due to domestic violence.
From now on, husbands who beat their wives or children without causing them to bleed or break bones will only be imprisoned for 15 days or can pay a fine instead of this prison term. Of course, the condition is that this violence is not repeated more than once a year. Previously, the punishment for this type of crime was a maximum of 2 years in prison.
Opponents and supporters
The Guardian newspaper quoted Elena Popova, a Russian civil rights activist who campaigned against the legal reforms, as saying: "The adoption of these reforms would have been appropriate if there was a law to end domestic violence."
He added that passing the amendment in this way shows that there is no determination to deal with the problem of domestic violence in Russia.
But supporters of the amendment have a different view. Olga Batalina, a member of the Russian parliament who participated in drafting the amendment, said: "The issue is not to legalize beatings. We all know that beatings are not a good thing. But the issue is to properly punish offenders, and there should be a distinction between perpetrators of domestic and non-domestic violence."
Others say the amendment aims to protect the family unit, which is held sacred by Russian tradition. For example, Dmitry Semimov, a Russian priest and head of the Orthodox Church’s Committee for Family Affairs, said in a television interview: “The idea of the state interfering in family affairs is an idea imported from the West. Some of the things that are happening in Northern Europe, Hitler would not have dreamed of.”
Praise for beating your wife
Last week, the magazine Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article in its “Science” section about “The Benefits of Wives Beating.” The article states: “New scientific research shows that wives of angry men have the right to be proud of the scars they received from beatings. Biological scientists say that beating women has positive benefits, including giving birth to male children.”
Popova says that when she stood alone in front of parliament to protest the amendment, many people cursed her. Some accused her of taking money from Western countries. Others told her that women deserved to be beaten.
Source: Al-Arabiya
