Faskh فسخ (i.e. dissolution of marriage): A List of hardships that a woman has to bear before getting her freedom through an Islamic court

In 'Faskh' (i.e. dissolution or annulment of marriage): 

• A woman gets the right to go to court, and get her marriage dissolved without paying any 'ransom money'.
• Faskh can take place only in very few special cases (like impotency, or if he doesn't pay her the maintenance money, or if he has become insane, or if his whereabouts are not known).
• Nevertheless, Islamic Faskh is also unequal towards the woman, since even in the above-mentioned special cases, Islam still compels her to wait for several years to get her freedom and she bears the burden in all these cases with no consideration from the Islamic court of her wellbeing.

As a case study, the 'Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939' may be studied for its relationship to these laws. This was a law which was compiled by Muslims Scholars of the Indian subcontinent and later became the official law of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Personal Law for Muslims in India.

Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939:

Grounds for divorce

Under the act a woman married under Muslim Law shall be entitled to obtain a decree for the dissolution of her marriage on any one or more of the following grounds,[1]

(i) that the whereabouts of the husband have not been known for a period of four years;

(ii) that the husband has neglected or has failed to provide for her maintenance for a period of two years;

(iii) that the husband has been sentenced to imprisonment for a period of seven years or upwards;

(iv) that the husband has failed to perform, without reasonable cause his marital obligations for a period of three years; continues to be so:

(v) that the husband was impotent at the time of the marriage and

(vi) that the husband has been insane for a period of two years or is suffering from leprosy or a virulent venereal disease;

(vii) that she, having been given in marriage by her father or other guardian before she attained the age of fifteen years, repudiated the marriage before attaining the age of eighteen years: Provided that the marriage has not been consummated (i.e. if the husband has slept with her before she becomes 18 years old, then she will lose her right to get divorce);

It is noteworthy that:

• Although the woman gets the right to have a divorce in these special cases, the duration of the process is extremely long, and she has to suffer this whole period unilaterally.
• And the beating of the wife (even with bruises) is not included in Faskh. This means she cannot get her freedom from an abusive husband (who tortures her) through any Islamic court in name of Faskh. Please read the details in our article: The deadly COMBINATION of two Evils: Brutal BEATING of Women + Women having no right to Divorce
• Moreover, as compared to the women, the husbands are allowed to 'immediately' divorce their wives if she is infertile, or she becomes insane, or if she is suffering from leprosy, or she does not respond to the husband's perceived marital needs, or for many other reasons.

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