The wife’s right to demand separate accommodation

Question

Question: If a woman says to her husband, “I will not live with your parents; rather, keep me separately from your parents’ house,” is it obligatory for the husband to give his wife a separate house? If the wife chooses a particular house — “Build a house in such-and-such a place and keep me there” — and the husband is able to provide a house in that place, will it be obligatory for the husband to build and give her a house in that specified place as well, or not?

Answer

It is necessary for the wife to have one independent small room into which no one else has access; as for the rest — the toilet and the like — if it is shared, so that both the husband’s parents and the wife use it, that is fine. She has no right to demand each thing separately.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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