Husband Is Suspicious-Minded and Won't Give Divorce Either

A woman has asked: my husband is suspicious-minded, he beats me, and he won't give me divorce — what is the solution for me?

Sir, there is a fairly simple solution — first go to court; if you have children, first file your claim for restitution/custody of the children and for yourself. If the man is not stubborn, he will come around and save his family, save his family system, and will start living with you agreeably, if you want to settle your home and your survival lies in settling that home. If he still does not agree, the laws of Pakistan have given you a great many facilities — the Muhammadan Laws in Pakistan are entirely there for the wife.

A man has to search for protection [in the law], while for a woman protection is laid open in the books. File your claim for khula. Before this law was amended, it used to take a wife many years to obtain khula, but now the law has made it so easy that if you go to court and simply say that I hate this person and I do not want to live with him as a wife, the court has no other option — the court can never refuse you, and it will issue you a khula decree. Within seven days of this khula decree, you provide its certified copy — your lawyer will know this very well — within seven days of the decree they have to deposit the execution fee in court, and through the court that copy goes to the concerned Union Council, and that Union Council will be bound that within ninety days — which is the period of your iddat — after the completion of that period, they issue you a divorce certificate. Within those ninety days it will be the responsibility of the Union Council to make every possible effort — to call that man, call your husband — and, as commanded, if during the period of iddat some reconciliation occurs, [well and good]; and if no reconciliation occurs, then within ninety days you will receive your divorce certificate, and after that you can remarry, or do whatever else you wish.