A wife’s demand for separate accommodation and maintenance in the case of nushuz

Question

Hamid married Na‘ima and, after the bride’s send-off, took Na‘ima to his home and kept her in the same house in which Hamid’s mother, father, brothers and others lived. According to custom, Na‘ima occasionally went to visit her parents. Na‘ima stayed at her in-laws’ for ten or eleven months, but because of the ill nature and abusive speech of her mother-in-law, father-in-law and husband she was constantly in great distress and grief.

Answer

It is wajib upon the husband to give his wife a dwelling to live in separately, such that the husband’s mother, father, brothers, sisters and others do not live in it, and it is entirely in the wife’s possession and control. By “dwelling” here is meant a single room or chamber, which in Arabic is called bayt.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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