@LenHazell53 Will they ?. I remember Jimmy Swaggert tearfully apologising for his promiscuous behaviour and a female follower saying how brave she thought he was for admitting his infidelity. This was after he had been caught out of course.

@Moravian Promiscuity, in the eyes of many a female believer, is a forgivable male trait and they will seek to excuse it.
However, child molesting, wife beating and female promiscuity are deadly and unforgivable sins.

@Petter Yes, their perception and reality can be quite different. I believe domestic abuse is more common in religious households and I remember years ago a genetic survey of families found that a large percentage of children in apparently happy families had a different father. The results were so unexpected and sensitive that they were suppressed for years.

@Moravian That reminds me of the old joke "Are you married, or do you live in Kenya?"
It was a pretty open secret in 1930/1940s Kenya that many men had not fathered their own children - but that they had fathered other men's children.

@Moravian I am aware of that, which is why I did not mention infidelity. Wife beating, however, is another matter.
My first wife beat the living shit out of me for five years. However, she made it quite clear that had I ever raised a hand against her to protect myself or, god forbid, removed myself from the situation, she would have no hesitation in calling the cops on me after she had “justifiably” crippled me for life for being a rude wimp.
In spite of the fact that she was a foot taller than me and seven stone heavier and a martial artist, the rules on spousal abuse are socially quite clear and one-sided. If a woman does it, it is freaking hilarious and well deserved, because after all men are guilty of something and the woman is always the victim, I mean how dare I attack her foot with my bollocks.

@LenHazell53 Wow. that must have been tough. Domestic abuse is not uncommon here in the UK and a proportion is female on male. As you say it is a difficult situation for the man.

@Moravian I think that abuse is often mental as well as physical.

@Lorajay Physical Abuse leads more often than not to Mental/Psychological harm/damage just as does Mental Abuse.

I wonder if a "devout Muslim" would be allowed to get away with such crap.

@anglophone Actually no, most mainstream Muslims think that all sinners must spend some time in purgatory to pay for their sins, before they can assend to heaven. That Christians claim to have a stupidly easy, "get out of jail free card," is one of the things they think is most stupid about Christianity.

@Fernapple That figures. (And thanks for sharing that part of the mainstream Muslim view.)