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The relation of wife to husband is finally fixed in all its details by the Mohammedan law, and, as we have seen, there must be no conditions made on either side in the marriage contract, a fortiori none that would in any way modify this relation. The position of the wife as defined by the fiqh or law of Islam is in many ways a very unfavourable one, and this not merely as measured by European standards; yet in many Mohammedan countries there prevails in practice an interpretation of the law much more favourable to the woman. This is based on the pre-existing social conditions which Islam found established on its first introduction, and which it was unable to exterminate.
Difficulty experienced by women in obtaining faskh.Such are for example the obligations of the husband in regard to the provision of maintenance, lodging, clothing etc. for his wife. These are indeed closely defined by the Law, but it furnishes no sufficient practical means for the enforcement of these rights. In fact, if the man deserts his wife, and fails to provide her with the necessaries of life etc., she has no right to demand a divorce[1] until she can prove that her husband is incapable of providing for her maintenance. In the absence of such proof she can only invoke the interference of the civil authority to compel her husband to fulfil his obligations, a course which, as might be supposed, is in most cases of little avail. Where the woman has succeeded, no matter in what way, in providing for her own support, and where no money has been paid by the husband in response to the judge's order, every claim on her part for compensation for the deficiency as a rule falls to the ground.
The taʾlīq in the East Indian Archipelago.In the East Indian Archipelago[2], a method to which the Mohammedan law itself gives the impulse has been resorted to in order to prevent the husband from leaving his wife to life-long misery by desertion and neglect of his duties towards her.
According to the law a conditional talāq (divorce) may be pronounced or as the saying is, the talāq may be "suspended" (taʾlīq). The numerous ways in which this can be done are most minutely defined in the books of the law. The essence of the matter is that if the husband has
- ↑ It must be borne in mind that for the man on the other hand the mere expression of his wish is sufficient to disolve the marriage without any further reason, and that the woman who is abandoned by her husband without any severing of the lawful bond of marriage occupies a miserable position in Mohammedan society.
- ↑ The same custom exists in the Straits Settlements, and would in all probability be met with in those parts of Hindustan whence Islam was introduced into the E. Indian Archipelago.
