'Marry and be submissive': Guide for wives based on Old Testament teachings of St Paul becomes bestseller in Spain (and

it was written by a WOMAN)

Self-help book advises women to be 'loyal and obedient' to their husbands Encourages them to learn how to be 'perfect housewife' Caused controversy in Spain where feminists have called for ban Written by Italian Catholic wife and mother of four She's mystified why woman are offended Content based on her experience and teachings of St Paul
By Lucy Waterlow PUBLISHED: 14:46, 16 December 2013 | UPDATED: 08:52, 17 December 2013

A book advising newly-wed women how to behave advises: 'It's true, you're not yet an experienced cook or a perfect housewife. What's the problem if he (your husband) tells you so? Tell him that he is right, that it's true, that you will learn. On seeing your sweetness and your humility, your effort to change, this will also change him.' It sounds like an extract from an outdated Fifties handbook but it is in fact from a recently published book that's become a bestseller in Italy and Spain. 'Csate y s sumisa', meaning 'Get Married and Be Submissive', is the title of the self-help tome that calls on women to be 'loyal and obedient' to their husbands.

Step back in tim e: A new book advises w om en to try and be the perfect housew ife in order to please their husband

Another of its pearls of wisdom explains: 'If you only do what is right for you, what you think, then you are not married to a man, you are married to yourself. Instead of doing that, you should submit to him.' It is already causing controversy with feminists and politicians who have called for it to be banned and one women's group staged a protest in Spain where they ripped up copies.

Controversial: The book advises w ives to be loyal and obedient to their husbands

One reviewer on Amazon commented: 'What an insult, a real setback for the struggle of women and men in favour of equality.' What has riled many even more is that the book is written by a woman - Italian author Costanza Miriano, 43. A devout Catholic married with four children, her book is based on the teachings of St Paul and has been published by the Archbishop of Granada's printing press Editorial Nuevo Inicio. In an interview with El Huffington Post, she said as well as turning to the Bible, she based her advice on the happy marriages of herself and her friends. She defended her work saying it was well-received when it was first published in Italy in 2011 and she can't understand why Spanish woman are so offended after it was translated and published in Spanish this year. She said: 'I never said that women should get married in general. I said that some women, my friends, just those, they should get married (in fact, now the majority have done so). Because I know and I know that to them that is the way of happiness. And anyway, not just women, men too, of course. 'Women and men together. I believe that at the bottom of the human being there is a sense of emptiness that fills only giving themselves completely to someone. This is the way of happiness.' She added that a submissive woman will have a happy marriage because: 'Submissive is the way to make room, to accept, to be put under as the columns of a cathedral, as the foundation.

Not a dirty w ord: Author Costanza Miriano believes the key to w edded bliss is subm ission

'Of course you can be happy. Because man is seduced by the beauty of a woman, able to support, to be a mother to those she meets. And then he can win his enormous selfishness, which is the default male.' The book states 'we [women] like humiliation because it is for a greater good' but Miriano rejects criticism that this incites violence against women. She said: 'If disturbing is the word submissive, then burn all copies of the Bible. In that case it will be an honour for me to go to the stake. 'That there is an incitement to violence against women is a pure madness... I reject violence. I respect the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill".'

Read more: "Si lo que molesta es la palabra sumisa, quemad las copias de la Biblia"

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