Jordanian woman jailed for biting her husband and beating him up with a glass vase

A Jordanian woman was sentenced to two weeks in prison and fined after she had beaten up her husband on the head with a vase and bit him during a domestic dispute, causing widespread outrage in the Kingdom.

The court's decision followed a legal complaint filed by the husband, backed by a medical report detailing his head injury from the vase and abrasions on his left shoulder due to the biting. As a result of the attack, he was unable to work for five days.

The husband pursued both a financial settlement and a criminal charge against his wife. While she didn't dispute her actions, she explained them as an attempt to protect their child during a rapid escalation of a domestic dispute, claiming her husband had tried to strangle the child. She also recounted past abuse, including him twisting her arm, pulling her hair, hitting her shoulder, expelling her from the house, then locking her inside and taking her phone. She argued that throwing the vase at him was an act of self-defense rather than an intention to harm.

Upon review, the Amman Court of First Instance, serving as an appellate court, confirmed the lower court's ruling that her self-defense argument wasn't valid because the use of a vase was disproportionate to the threat. The court found criminal intent and maintained her two-week prison sentence.