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Can a woman seek divorce from her husband who is negligent at home, refuses to help with life's burdens, assaults her, and disposes of her money and her daughter's gold without her consent?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Islam encourages the formation of families and the continuation of married life, which it refers to as a "solemn covenant." Therefore, it should not be allowed to collapse for the most trivial reasons. My advice to the wife is not to rush the decision of divorce, due to its negative effects on her and her child. She might not find another husband, or her future husband might be worse.

The wife can use other means to solve the problem before resorting to divorce, such as: - Trying to leave the house without cleaning it to let the husband see the difference. - Threatening him with quitting her job if he doesn't help her with cleaning, if he cares about her work. - Threatening to cut off money from him or enticing him with it, such as refusing to pay rent if he doesn't maintain cleanliness, or paying it if he adheres to order, while reminding him that Islamic law does not obligate her to pay these things.

The husband must treat his wife with kindness and not burden her with what she cannot bear, and he should be a helper to her in household chores, just as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to do. He was engaged in the service of his family, mending his sandals, sewing his clothes, and working in his home.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

Read the full answer on Ftawy