Among lots of other things a piece about this:
Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women such as wives and domestic servants from Asian countries is an acute problem in wealthy Arab countries. Domestic violence or, more precisely, wife-beating is widespread in all Arab countries and other countries burdened by the yoke of Arab colonialism, such as the Maldives.
Whenever the issue is raised, detractors hasten to parrot out a litany of statistics of domestic violence here in the civilised world. The Western statistics are extensive because there are systems in place that make it easy for victims to seek legal redress. Few care to point out that in the West no one claims that wife-beating is a divine right of men over women.
It quotes a Friday sermon aired live on Qatar television on 27 August 2004:
The intelligent people in the [West] admit that a woman does not feel comfort and is not happy unless she's under a man who commands, forbids, controls, and leads. This is the nature of people according to Allah's creation. Allah has created woman, whether Muslim or infidel, so she is happy under a strong man who will protect her and lives with her. It is not surprising, then, that a French woman came before a judge in the land of false freedom and equality and said: "I don't want this husband." The judge asked her: "Why?" and she replied: "He didn't lead me, didn't oppress me, didn't castigate me, didn't talk to me violently, didn't say: Don’t do this, do that." The judge replied: "Don't [his actions] support those who call for equality between man and woman?" The infidel woman answered, "No, no, I don't want him to compete with me, I want a man who leads and rules me."
Source: Maldives Royal Family Official Website: Wife beating