Jordan leads the Arab world in its efforts to tackle domestic abuse against women and children. Since 1997 the Family Protection Department in the PSD has forefronted the state’s campaign, albeit with extensive involvement of women’s rights groups, many of which are associated with members of the Royal Family. And yet, extensive public opposition remains to state intervention into the private affairs of the family. In the absence of ‘spontaneous consent’ for the Family Protection Department, the police rely on strategies of power including royal and external patronage, alliances with women’s rights movements, legal strictures and, ultimately, coercion, to undertake their work. The chapter draws on interviews with police officers, lawyers, women’s rights groups as well as societal figures opposed to the initiative.

Chapter 4 focuses on the controversial practice of (self-)flagellation (tatbir), which involves using swords and knives to cut the body. This highly controversial ritual practice, which is traditionally performed by men, is increasingly practiced by Shirazi Shi‘i women. Shirazi Shi‘i women in London claim that they initiated this practice among women for the first time in 2007, which has influenced and inspired other Shi‘i women to practice tatbir in other European countries and in the Middle East, including Kuwait and recently Bahrain. The chapter examines to what extent the increasing number of women performing tatbir in Europe can be regarded as a form of female religious empowerment, thus influencing the gender dynamics within Shi‘i ritual practices not only in London but also among other Shi‘i communities in other European countries and in the Middle East.