Islam And The Divorce Saga
Artwork by Patrick Tschudi
Solely on my prudence, I do not believe in the constitution of marriage. Why do we consider divorce as a bad omen in our society? I had fiery analysis on this saga with my orthodox senior family members. The concluding observations I drew from the negotiations; girls will always have to compromise. The compromise for the kids, family honor and for the obligatory society practices. My senior religious relative stated you liberal race won't understand, divorce is the most offensive permissible action in the sight of Allah.
I apologetically asked; Why Islam is the only religion which offers Khula for women to secure their rights? I shared the verse from Surah Al-Baqarah [2:229] for the reference,
Divorce is twice. Then, either keep [her] in an acceptable manner or release [her] with good treatment. And it is not lawful for you to take anything of what you have given them unless both fear that they will not be able to keep [within] the limits of Allah. But if you fear that they will not keep [within] the limits of Allah, then there is no blame upon either of them concerning that by which she ransoms herself. These are the limits of Allah, so do not transgress them. And whoever transgresses the limits of Allah - it is those who are the wrongdoers.
I raised another question with the help of quranic verse. Why in Islam it's worthy to use your father name after marriage? Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 33 Surah Ahzaab verse 5 (part):
Call them by (the names) of their fathers: that is juster in the sight of Allah.
If we go with the facts, husbands have nothing extraordinary which makes them noticeable over wives. If a man struggles for the food and shelter, women do work around the clock, 24*7, 365 days a year to sustain peace and harmony in our houses.
In Islam Khula is the right of a woman in to seek a divorce from her husband.Women should ought for substantial reasons for khula such as cruelty, impotence, lack of sufficient food and shelter.A Muslim woman may request a qadi, or in non-Islamic regions an Islamic council, to confer her divorce if the husband denies. After the divorce period, women have to perform iddah to follow the Islamic schooling. The duration of Iddah is lunar months and ten days.
Why do we consider divorce as a casualty? Each of us is entitled to have our own rules and regulation for our lives. Why in Asian communities families honor is astonishingly important. In our social culture, the girl is supposed to be a hooker if she is filing for the divorce. The backward people from our society consider slut shaming as a faithful service for the society. Hence everyone who has gone against Khula should study Islamic references, verses and most notably QURAN. His silence was my victory, we all know how hard is to fight for your reasoning in cultured desi families.
