FAMILY LAW II (MUSLIM LAW)
CIA 3

RIGHT TO DIVORCE FOR MUSLIM WOMAN AND KHULA

SUBMITTED BY: POUSHALI NANDI
CLASS: III BA-LLB (C)
REGISTER NO: 1216227 INTRODUCTION
Romans, Hebrews, Israelis, all such religion had divorce in one or the other forms. But even though such provision was recognised in all religions Islam is perhaps the first religion which has expressly recognised the termination of marriage by way of divorce. Divorce among the ancient Arabs was easy and of frequent occurrence. In fact, this tendency has even persisted to some extent, in Islamic law in spite of the fact that Prophet showed his dislike to it. It was regarded by the Prophet to be the worst and hateful form of divorce before the Almighty God as it prevented conjugal happiness and also effected the proper bringing up of a child.
Under Muslim law, a marriage is dissolved either by the death of the husband or wife, or by divorce. After the death of a wife, the husband may remarry immediately. But the widow cannot remarry before a certain period called ‘iddat’ expires. In case of death of the husband, iddat period is four months and ten days. In case of pregnant woman, iddat period is till the delivery of the child.
Generally both the parties to marriage have an option to divorce, but the husband’s right is considered to be greater than that of the woman. The woman or the wife cannot divorce herself from her husband without his consent. But this does not mean that the wife has no right to divorce under Muslim law. She can purchase her divorce from her husband by ‘khula’ and can have the marriage dissolved by talaq-e-tafweez. Marriage can also be dissolved by judicial decree under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939. To sum up, under Muslim Law, wife can divorce only under three situations. Firstly, where the husband delegates the right to divorce to the