text: does the koran tell the reader what hand to use to wipe her/ his  behind after a bowel movement? no toilet paper in the desert i'm not sure if there any instruction in the koran that explain this particular point. but, in obvious disgrace to women, it says literally: if you come from toilet or you touched a woman you have to  perform the ritual ablution......  literally in this humiliating sequence. here is the phrase as mentioned in the koran:  nessa [43] if ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from bowel place, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands. for allah doth blot out sins and forgive again and again.