Journal of Civil & Legal Sciences
Open Access

Research Article

Judicial Separation at the Wife’s Initiative: A Study of Redemption (Khul‘) in Islamic Law and Contemporary Legislation in Pakistan and Malaysia

Muhammad Ifzaal Mehmood^*

International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author:

Muhammad Ifzaal Mehmood, Ph.D Candidate
International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia
Tel: (+603) 6196 4000
E-mail:ifzaalmehmood@gmail.com

Received Date: September 09, 2016; Accepted Date: September 19, 2016; Published Date: September 26, 2016

Citation: Mehmood MI (2016) Judicial Separation at the Wife’s Initiative: A Study of Redemption (Khul‘) in Islamic Law and Contemporary Legislation in Pakistan and Malaysia. J Civil Legal Sci 5: 212. doi: 10.4172/2169-0170.1000212

Copyright: © 2016 Mehmood MI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Under Islamic Law it is the general perception that the right of Divorce belongs only to the husband. This concept has been administered in Islamic countries due to the opinion that there is no such kind of right for a woman to get divorced from her spouse. Muslim women living in British India before the independence of Pakistan had no legal right to divorce. When Pakistan became an independent state in 1947, it retained the law. For a woman who suffers and has an unhappy life, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 (DMMA) was initiated where by the law of Redemption (khul‘) was introduced in section 2(ix) of Dissolution of Marriage (fasakh-e-nikah). This enactment created confusion over whether Redemption (khul‘) is Dissolution of Marriage (fasakh-e-nikah) or Divorce (talaq), that is, whether the court can grant Redemption (khul‘) to a married woman without the consent of her husband. While in Malaysia the law of Redemption is administered under section 49 of the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) 1984, Dissolution of Marriage (fasakh-e-nikah) is put in a separate section, section 52 of the Islamic Family Law (Federal territories)1984. This paper discusses the Islamic perspective of Redemption (khul‘) and the relevance of the Malaysian enactment for Muslim Family Law in Pakistan is recommended, where separate sections for Dissolution of Marriages and Redemption (khul‘) should be demarcated.

Keywords