The ayatollah has a simple piece of advice for any Muslim woman being abused by her husband: hit him back. “A woman can respond to physical violence inflicted on her by a man with counter-violence as a self-defence measure,” wrote Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon’s senior-most Shiite cleric, in a fatwa late in 2007 that shocked conservative Muslims around the world.

Fadlallah long has been considered a leader of the most radical faction of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon. He endorsed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution in Iran and was accused of ordering, or at least encouraging, the 1983 bombings of the US Marines barracks in Lebanon. He issued fatwas, calling on the faithful to resist the United States and urged Muslims to boycott American products.

But the 72-year-old cleric has toned down his rhetoric in recent years. Instead, he espouses a more modest vision for the faithful than the ambitious agenda set forth by Iran, which considers itself the patron of Shiites worldwide and has been trying to increase its influence throughout the Muslim world. “I don’t see there is a unity in the situation of Shiites in the world,” Fadlallah said. “I think the current Iranian president lacks diplomatic skills, and I think he creates problems for Iran,” he said of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Fadlallah, whose black turban identifies him as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, focuses on issues of concern to his followers, such as parenting. “One of the general principles in raising children is that parents should not consider their child as part of their possessions,” he wrote in a ruling translated and placed on the English section of his Web site, english.bayynat.org.lb.

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