Harrow School has many centuries-old traditions that make it a jewel in the crown of British education: straw hats, black tailcoats and its own form of archaic slang, where "beaks" means teachers and "the ducker" is the swimming pool.
Soon it will need to grapple with some new customs. Sir Winston Churchill's alma mater is opening two schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this summer, where Muslim pupils recite the Koran and learn about beating their wives.
The Telegraph has spent months investigating what children are being taught in the UK's top private schools operating in the Middle East. Textbooks reveal that, despite the quintessential Britishness they peddle, many of these schools have been teaching pupils how to deal with "rebellious" wives.
Headings in one include: "First: good counselling", "Second: refusing bed-sharing" and "Third stage: beating lightly". The book tells pupils that the last step refers to "beating for the purpose of remediation".
It says: "Its objective is to safeguard marital life against breakdown and maintain companionship and social intimacy. A husband is not allowed to hit his wife using a whip or stick or in her face. He is to use a siwak (small teeth cleaning twig) or a light handkerchief."
Only Muslim pupils at the schools take these lessons, although expat children are required to have morality lessons set by the UAE government. Families must submit information about their child's nationality and religion when they apply to the schools, with Muslim and Arab pupils separated from expat children for Islamic lessons mandated by the state.
Pupils are also taught "how to treat husband-related nushuz (ill-conduct stemming from the husband's cruelty)" but are told simply that "if a wife fears cruelty or aversive behaviour on her husband's part, there is no blame on them if they arrange an amicable settlement between themselves; and such settlement is best".
The chapter includes an exercise asking children to "explain why Islam made divorce the right of the husband alone", and includes as an example: "Because he is more patient and tolerant."
At the end of the chapter, students are given a list of "causes of conflicts in social and marital relationships and how to avoid them", including "stressful and burdensome demands made by some wives" and "stinginess of the husband and his refusal to support and spend on his wife".
Mandatory morality lessons in the UAE mean pupils at British private schools in the region are being fed propaganda about the greatness of the ruling Emirati, including how the country "empowers women" and "ranks first in terms of peaceful co-existence".
In reality, human rights are greatly restricted in the UAE and other countries where these schools operate. The UAE government frequently imprisons critics, while gay sexual acts are illegal and Muslim women must obtain the consent of a male guardian to marry.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/02/private-schools-middle-east-branches-teach-wife-beating/