What is the way out if the husband pays no attention to his wife?

Question

Question: I submit that about eleven months have passed since Muhammad Isma‘il’s wedding, yet to this day Muhammad Isma‘il has not so much as touched his wife Asiya Begum. Three or four days after the nikah, Asiya Begum, forcing herself, said to Muhammad Isma‘il’s guardian (who is herself Asiya Begum’s maternal aunt): “Your son’s condition is such that he does not even raise his eyes to look at me; even when he needs water he asks his sister-in-law (his brother’s wife) for it.

Answer

If the wife is not ready to go to her husband’s house and fulfil the marital rights, and she fears for her life, she should obtain a talaq from the husband somehow — by entreaty, by offering him something, by waiving the mahr, in short by any means; apart from this there is no way of getting free.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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