Title: The Requirement of Four Witnesses to Prove a Case of Rape Question: I believe that a rape victim has to provide two male witnesses to prove that she was raped. How is it possible that she can do that? Answer: Muslim jurists are generally of the opinion that to evidence a case of rape, the victim has to provide four (not two) witnesses to prove the case. The basis of the Jurist's opinion is the Qur'anic directive regarding the evidence required to start any legal proceedings against persons who have been accused of fornication. However, a close look at the related verse of the Qur'an shows that it neither relates to the required evidence for rape cases nor for that of ordinary cases of fornication. On the contrary, it relates to the particular situation in which a person, who is generally known to be chaste and pious, is accused of fornication. For this particular case, the Qur'an says: Those who accuse chaste women of fornication and then do not provide four witnesses [to evidence their accusation] strike them with eighty strips and do not accept their witness ever after. ( Al-Noor 24: 4) Keeping the stresses of the words of the referred verse in perspective, it is quite clear that the verse does not relate to the evidence required to prove a case of rape. On the contrary, it actually relates to protecting chaste women (as well as men) from false accusations of fornication. In other words, the verse is not prescribing the minimum number of witnesses to prove a case of rape or fornication; it is actually prescribing the minimum number of witnesses, which must be present and willing to testify against those accused of fornication, to initiate any court proceedings or to admit a case against such accused. This is quite clear from the fact that in the absence of the prescribed number of witnesses, the verse prescribes a severe punishment for the person/persons making the accusation. Thus, according to my understanding of the related verse, the referred opinion of the Muslim jurists is not very accurate. Furthermore, even if it is accepted that the verse prescribes the number of witnesses to prove a case of fornication, as has generally been derived by the Muslim jurists, it would still not be correct, in my opinion, to draw an analogy between rape and fornication, especially in the case of the requirement of witnesses. I am sure you would agree with me that nothing, besides the fact that both the crimes relate to sex, is common between rape and fornication. It is obvious that in the case of fornication, there is, generally, no aggrieved party, which may be termed as a complainant (in its literal sense). On the contrary, a case of fornication is, generally, initiated with an accusation on two persons (a man and a woman), who have willingly (with mutual consent) indulged in an act considered to be a crime in the Islamic Shari`ah . The reason for this peculiar position of fornication is that - in contrast to other crimes like theft, murder, robbery and even rape - fornication is a crime in which neither of the parties directly involved in it assumes the role of a complainant. The complainant, in the case of fornication, is generally a third party, not directly involved in the crime (which may, therefore, be more accurately termed as an 'accuser'). The position of a rape victim is, obviously, not comparable to that of one of the two (or more) parties to fornication. I, therefore, do not agree with the opinion of the majority of the Muslim jurists, who have drawn an analogy between a rape victim and a party to fornication and, therefore, are of the opinion that the evidence required to prove a case of rape is the same as the one required in proving a case of fornication [1] . In my opinion, the Shari`ah has not given any strict guidelines or rules regarding how to prove a case of rape, just as no strict and universal guidelines and rules have been given by the Shari`ah regarding the methods of proving any other crime. The reason for this silence of the Shari`ah , in the referred case, is quite obvious. We know that the methods employed in evidencing crimes greatly rely upon the human developments in the field of forensics and other investigative disciplines. Thus, the methods that can so easily be employed in the modern day were more or less unimaginable just a few years ago. Had the Shari`ah prescribed any rules regarding the methods of proving a crime, such methods would have become redundant with any developments in the field of forensics and other investigative disciplines. In view of the above explanation, it is my opinion that the case of rape, as any other crime, except an accusation of fornication, does not require the complainant to provide a given number of witnesses, for the initiation of any legal proceedings. On the contrary, when a victim of rape - which is actually an aggrieved party in a crime rather than a party to it - brings her complaint to an authority, it is not merely an accusation, on the contrary, it is in fact a complaint of an injustice that she has suffered at the hands of the accused. In such a case, the legal authority, if it is satisfied [2] of the complainant's appeal, may initiate any legal proceedings against the accused even if the complainant does not have any witnesses to prove her claim. The case shall, subsequently, be decided on the basis of all such evidence, which is considered admissible by the competent legal authority. 3 rd August 2000 [1] As should be clear from the preceding paragraphs, in my opinion, the Qur'an has not even given any strict criteria to prove a case of fornication. [2] This satisfaction of the authority may be based on any grounds admissible in such cases.