Islam's great injustices against women when it comes to divorce

The Background:

We cannot understand the importance of this topic (of wife having a right to divorce), till the time we don't understand the background story of this issue.

On one hand, Islam grants husbands complete freedom to exploit and abuse their wives, while on the other, it prevents wives from escaping such abuse. It forces women to remain at the mercy of their husbands, compelling them to endure a life of misery.

Exploitation and Abuse: This exploitation and abuse comes in the form, when:

Islam fully allows husbands to brutally BEAT their wives, even with bruises (but not that bones are broken), in the name of disciplining them.
ٰIslam fully allows a husband to prohibit the wife to go outside, and to stay in the home. She cannot visit her parents or to go to their funeral without the permission of her husband. Thus, husbands can put their wives in a solitary confinement like situation in their homes.
In addition to direct beating and abusing, Islam also allows husbands to mistreat, and make lives miserable for their wives through Quranic Ila (الإيلاء). It is a tool given to husbands by Islam to exert control over their wives. Husbands can punish the wives by not coming to them and paying any attention and love to them, and caring for their sexual needs for 4 months. Thus, a wife is literally compelled to live in solitary confinement like conditions in husband's home for 4 months. And this solitary confinement like punishment can be extended again and again for another4 months every time. Please read the details about ILA here (V.V. Important). Although a husband does not show love to his wife, but it is fully Halal (allowed) for him to beat her during this period.

Closing all Escape Doors for the wives: ,

In Islam:

Divorce: A woman does not have a RIGHT to divorce, as only the husband has the right to give divorce in Islam.
KHUL' (خلع): Taking the divorce through Khul' is also not a RIGHT of a wife, but it is again the right of a husband in Islamic Sharia. There is a huge misunderstanding where some Islamic countries today have indeed allowed their citizen women to separate themselves through Khul' from a court, but it is against the original Khul' ruling. Actually, it is an innovation (Bida'h) in the original Islamic Sharia. Thus, no Islamic court can compel the abusive husband to give freedom to the poor wife through Khul', and he can keep her for himself against her will and can keep on beating and raping her without her consent.
Faskh (i.e. Dissolution of Marriage): This dissolution of marriage is applicable only in a limited number of specific scenarios, such as cases of impotence, non-payment of maintenance, mental instability, or the husband's untraceable status. Only in these 5 cases, an Islamic court can give freedom to the wife. However, a woman has no right to Faskh if the husband beats her, or punishes her through ILA.

All in all, a wife has no chance to escape this abuse and exploitation and get rid of her abusive husband in Islam.

In brief, a wife in Islam has no opportunity to escape this exploitation and cannot free herself from an oppressive husband.

Later, Muslim scholars realized that Islam had been very unjust to women in this regard. So, they began looking for ways to allow oppressed women to separate from their abusive husbands within an Islamic framework.

Some scholars modified Khul' خلع (i.e. they introduced an innovation بدعة in it) to grant women the right to divorce without the husband's consent.

However, there was also considerable objection to the injustice where women have to pay the ransom money to their husbands in Khul'. Consequently, some modern Islamic countries introduced one more innovation (i.e. بدعة) in the Khul' rule, allowing wives to obtain a divorce from their husbands without either their consent or paying any ransom money.

However, a majority of scholars, including Hanafi jurists, do not permit women to initiate a khula (divorce) without the husband's consent. To address this, Hanafi scholars suggested including a "delegated right of divorce" (تفویض طلاق) in the marriage contract, allowing women some control over divorce.

However, this did not fully resolve the issue since neither the Quran nor Hadith explicitly supports this right. Consequently, awareness of this option remained minimal throughout Islamic history, leaving 99.99% women uninformed of this potential safeguard, and thus exposed to continued injustices.

No Direct Ruling of "Delegated Right of Divorce to Wives" is present in the Quran or Hadith

There is no explicit and direct directive in the Quran or Hadith allowing a woman to demand a delegated right of divorce at the time of Nikah.

In the time of Muhammad, not a single woman made such a demand of delegated right of divorce, at her Nikah.

However, some Muslim scholars later devised this provision to help women escape oppressive marriages. This was partly inspired by an incident where Muhammad gave an ultimatum of divorce to his wives regarding their demands of increasing their maintenance money. However, this incident does not support giving of delegated right of divorce to the wives.

The Original Incident:

After the battle of Trech, Muhammad attacked upon the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza in Medina. He ordered to slaughter all Jewish men of that tribe after making them prisoners. Then Muslim looted all their lands, gardens, cattle, property and money. Muhammad also made a lot of money in the name of Khums, including a beautiful concubine Reyhana. Upon that, the other wives of Muhammad demanded Muhammad that he should increase their maintenance money.

But Muhammad didn't like this demand by his wives, and as punishment for them, he swore not to visit them for one month (practically keeping his wives in a state simililar to solitary confinment in their homes). But Muhammad was himself free to enjoy his concubines during this whol period.

But Muhammad didn't stop on this, but he went further. Through new revelation, Muhammad threated his wives if they still stayed on their demand (of increasing the maintenance money), then he would divorce them and make them to leave his house, after giving them some money.

Quran 33:26-29:

Allah brought down from their fortresses those People of the Book (i.e. the Jews of Banu Qurayza) who had supported the invading confederates and cast such terror into their hearts that some of them you kill and some of them you take captive. Allah made you inherit their land, their dwellings, and their goods, and a piece of land on which you had not yet trodden. Verily Allah has power over all things. O Prophet, say to your wives, "If you should desire the worldly life and its adornment, then come, I will provide for you and give you a gracious release (i.e. divorce). But if you should desire Allah and His Messenger and the home of the Hereafter (by not making the demand of increasing maintenance money) - then indeed, Allah has prepared for the doers of good among you a great reward."

When the threat of divorce was made, all of Muhammad’s wives immediately withdrew their demands for more maintenance, as divorce meant even more suffering for women. It also meant losing the little support they were receiving.

Based on this incident, some Muslim scholars argued that Muhammad had granted his wives the right to divorce (delegated divorce). This led them to conclude that:

Wives could also include this clause in their marriage contract at the time of Nikah, granting them the right to divorce
And the husbands have no right to revoke it.

However, another group of Muslim scholars opposed them, arguing that:

The Prophet retained the right of divorce ONLY for himself and did not give his wives any absolute right to divorce.
The Prophet never granted any wife the right to divorce in ADVANCE at the time of Nikah, in form of any condition. But he later gave them an option: either they would give up their demands for more maintenance or, if they wished, the Prophet himself would grant them divorce.

Thus, according to this group of scholars, wives do not have an "absolute" right to divorce, nor the right to add such a clause to the marriage contract in advance. Furthermore, they argue that the husband can withdraw the divorce right, just like a man can revoke a power of attorney granted to someone else than their wives.

Furthermore, the group of scholars that allowed delegating the right of divorce to wife experienced further disagreements, as each scholar was making hiw own new Sharia. For example:

Hanafi scholars allowed an unrestricted delegation of the right to divorce to the wife.
However, the Hanbali scholars disagreed and claimed that a wife cannot be granted an unrestricted right to divorce. However, if she sets a condition at the time of marriage that does not contradict the rights granted to the husband in the Quran and Hadith, then she may demand a divorce if the husband does not fulfil those conditions.
For example, Hanbali scholars argue that if a wife demands a condition that contradicts the husband's rights, such as preventing him from beating her, it is forbidden (while Allah gave this right to a husband to beat his wife). However, if the wife sets a condition that is not explicitly addressed in the Quran and Sunnah, such as gaining the right to divorce if the husband marries again and get additional wives, or moves to another city, it is allowed.

In simple words, according to Hanbali scholars, a wife cannot stipulate this condition in the marriage contract that she will get the right to divorce if the husband beats her or punishes her through Ila (الإيلاء). There is no ESCAPE possible for her.

Conclusion:

The idea of delegating divorce during marriage was never practiced during Muhammad’s lifetime, and there was no direct guidance on it in the Quran or Hadith. For over 14 centuries, most women (perhaps 99.99% women) didn’t even know this could be a possibility. It wasn’t until 1961 that Pakistan included a box for “delegation of divorce” in marriage contracts, mainly due to external pressures and protests from women. However, the box remains mostly empty, as many still don’t use it.

The Complete FAILURE of Allah to save billions of women of the last 14 centuries from Suffering

For 14 centuries, Muslim women suffered exploitation and injustice, and even today, the right to delegate divorce in marriage contracts is rarely used by women.

Muslims, especially Hanafi scholars, often argue that it’s not Islam’s fault but the fault of Muslims that 99.999% of women were unaware of this law. However, this argument doesn’t hold because if Allah truly exists with infinite knowledge, why didn’t He clearly instruct the believers in the Quran about the right of women to delegate divorce, especially if He knew about the suffering of millions of women in the future? Yes, even a SINGLE clear verse would have been enough to save women of the last 14 centuries.

Think about it: the Quran is a volumnious book. It contains grand claims of Allah's power, threats of punishment to non-Muslims, and ancient stories, but it fails to clearly state just One Single Verse to grant women the right to set a condition for delegating divorce at the time of marriage.

How can such an entity be called All-Wise?

If there truly were a wise God in the heavens, He would have made this clear from the start, ensuring that if a husband mistreated his wife, she could protect herself by having the right to divorce.

In conclusion, one may contemplate whether the lack of divine intervention suggests the absence of an Allah in the heavens, and whether Muhammad was making the religion on his own and he, being human, made errors in adequately communicating religious principles.

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