A report has been circulating throughout the Arabic-language media claiming that a leading Saudi cleric has issued a fatwa permitting husbands to eat their wives in the event that they are extremely hungry.
The fatwa, a religious ruling, has been widely attributed to the Grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, although it is yet to be officially confirmed.
IBTimes reports: The grand mufti, who is the highest religious figure in Saudi Arabia, allegedly went on to substantiate the fatwa by saying this will allow the couple to “become one as their bodies will fuse together after the husband eats his wife”.
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According to multiple local reports, the fatwa “allows a man to eat his wife or parts of her body, if the husband was afflicted with a severe hunger”.
The report added: “The fatwa is interpreted as evidence of the sacrifice of women and obedience to her husband and her desire for the two to become one.”
The alleged fatwa has stoked controversy as many derided it over various social media platforms. However, there has been no mention of such fatwa listed on the mufti’s website as yet.
Nonetheless, religious authorities quickly denied that the Saudi mufti issued any such fatwa to quell the speculation.
“The truth is that this is fabricated and made up from its basis. These ill thoughts cannot come from any Muslim, regardless of a great scholar who Muslims refer to from around the world. It was made up to create this confusion and damage,” Khalid ben Abdel-Rahman El-Shaye, assistant secretary general of the Global Commission for Introducing the Messenger, affiliating to the Muslim World League, told CNN Arabic.
As speculation grows, the grand mufti himself denied declaring the fatwa. In a statement released via the Saudi Press Agency, the cleric said: “The fatwa attributed to us is wrong. It is nothing but lies … It has been circulated to distort the image of Islam, which has elevated and granted a dignified status to men and women without exceptions…”
