After four decades of feminist campaigning against men’s right to beat their wives there is widespread disapproval of it among right-thinking British people. Legal sanctions against domestic violence do not allow alcohol as a mitigating factor. Even men’s rights activists tend to shy away from publicly justifying beating up women because they refuse to obey, even if they secretly condone such actions. Indeed, the only group that still publicly and shamelessly defends wife-beating is the Islamists. The cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whom the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone described as “one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world”, defends Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and said, of the verse in the Koran about how it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife to keep her in line, that he accepts corporal punishment as a method of last resort — though only “lightly”.

Those who agree with al-Qaradawi would also presumably excuse forced marriage, marital rape and other forms of male coercion of women — all in the name of sharia and Islam. There is a reluctance to admit that FGM, another form of domestic violence, is primarily carried out within Muslim countries and communities, which have been reluctant to assist the UK authorities to make arrests and bring prosecutions.

Women and girls living under Muslim laws face restrictions on what they wear, where they can appear in public, and on their education and work. The prohibition of alcohol in a building owned by a Muslim is a step towards creating Islamic enclaves that live under a different legal system — the no-go areas that the police deny exist. And the fact that MPs, the country’s legislators, are apparently powerless to do anything about it implies that we are losing sight of the idea of equality before the law.

Alcohol does not cause abuse and violence, though it is often used as an excuse for the violence. Not all alcoholics are violent, and not all abusers have a drink problem.

The reality is that the majority of abusers are not alcoholics. They use alcohol as part of their wider abusive behaviour. Over the years I have volunteered in women’s refuges and also interviewed the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. I have learned that violent men often blame the alcohol rather than themselves for the violence; they will go out and get drunk to create an excuse to get violent, or pretend to be drunk when perpetrating violence and affect not to remember what they did when drunk.

The problem is not alcohol, but attitudes towards women. The fewer rights women have in relation to men, the worse the domestic violence and other forms of abuse at the hands of men.  But women and girls living under sharia law in the UK are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence. Forced and early marriage, polygamy and draconian attitudes towards the role of women in the home result in wives having little or no power and husbands exerting theirs in any way they choose. In addition, the widespread practice of using patriarchal sharia courts to settle disputes between family members has resulted in a free-for-all within conservative Muslim households.