“That is because it would, obviously, negatively affect the interests of the other party involved. Moreover, severe punishments to such abusers, including prison time, lashes and deprival of some of their rights could be more effective than publicizing their names,” legal expert Khaled Abu Rashid told Arab News.

However, Abu Rashid added that publicizing the names of abusers who were family members was a form of punishment that did not breach Islamic Law.

Hussein Al-Sharif, supervisor general of the Human Rights Society in Makkah, said public identification was an option left purely to the discretion of a judge.

In Islamic legal terminology identification is known as taazir.

Al-Sharif did not agree with the lenient attitude of judges toward abusers who were also family members. “Anyone who abuses his family is considered a mentally ill man who needs to be treated. On the contrary, in many cases it has been proven beyond doubt that the abuser was not sick at all. What he needed was rehabilitation programs that ensured a positive behavioral change,” he said.

Al-Sharif, who has reservations about the punishment of identifying those convicted in court, considered that the severity of punishments should be increased gradually. “This kind of social punishment is likely to have a negative impact on the person, prompting him to be more aggressive toward society,” he said.

Some activists say there should be a record on domestic violence at the social status department and stressed the need for specific laws.

Legal expert Suhailah Zain Al-Abdeen said that rules concerning women and children derived from Islamic teachings should be reviewed. He added that most of them were formulated on the basis of weak traditions that flew in the face of principles derived from Islamic texts.