The latest issue of SSRN’s Islamic Law & Law of the Muslim World eJournal includes the following article by SHARIAsource South Asia Editor Zubair Abbasi:
“From Faskh to Khula: Transformation of Muslim Women’s Right to Divorce in Pakistan (1947-2017)”
In the article, Abbasi traces the transformation of women’s right to divorce in Pakistani courts over the last 70 years. He finds that Pakistani judges, by creatively interpreting the primary sources of Islamic law, have expanded women’s right to seek a no-fault divorce. In addition, the judges have developed new legal principles to protect women’s share of matrimonial property, by taking into account the benefits that the husbands gained during the marriage, as well as determining an amount of the dower that the wives are required to return.
Read the article (open access; registration may be required) here. For a comparison of divorce rights of Muslim women in Pakistan and India, see Abbasi’s 2017 commentary on the SHARIAsource Portal here.