A report claiming that a leading Saudi Arabian cleric has issued a controversial fatwa allowing a husband to chop off his wife and eat her body in the event of extreme hunger, has stirred up quite a controversy as many try to ascertain whether it is a hoax or truth?
On Thursday, reports emerged that Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, issued the fatwa (an Islamic edict) on the grounds that they would "become one as their bodies will fuse together after the husband eats his wife."
Multiple local reports noted that 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 further went on to say that "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 soon raked up controversy as many derided it over various social media platforms.
The controversial fatwa report, which has widely been reported in Arabic news source, is yet to to be published on the official Saudi website, which contains all such Islamic edicts. There is also no clarity as to when the Grand Mufti issued the fatwa.
The report, if proved true, would not be the first time that the current Grand Mufti has made such controversial statements. Back in 2012, he had declared that "all churches in the Arabian Peninsula must be destroyed."
Similarly in April 2012, he had issued a fatwa allowing 10-year-old girls to marry, insisting that girls are ready for marriage by the age of 10 or 12.
"Our mothers and grandmothers got married when they were barely 12. Good upbringing makes a girl ready to perform all marital duties at that age," Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah had noted.
