By HUSSAINA YAKUBU

Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, says no woman should remain in an abusive, harmful or toxic marriage under Islamic law.

Gumi made this known in a message on Monday in Kaduna.

He said Sharia provides several lawful avenues through which women can exit harmful marriages.

He said Islamic teachings also promised relief and better provision for couples who separated righteously when reconciliation became impossible.

Gumi identified mutual consent divorce, khul’, judicial annulment, delegated divorce and arbitration as some lawful options available to women.

He explained that mutual consent divorce allowed spouses to end their marriage amicably through agreed terms on finances, custody and the waiting period.

According to him, khul’ enables a woman to initiate divorce by returning her dower or offering compensation to her husband.

He said khul’ could be pursued when a woman disliked the marriage but could not establish specific harm or fault.

Gumi, however, noted that judicial intervention could become necessary where a husband unreasonably refused a legitimate request for khul’.

He said judicial annulment, known as faskh, allowed a woman to seek dissolution without returning her dower where valid grounds existed.

He listed physical, emotional or psychological abuse, failure to provide maintenance and prolonged abandonment among grounds that could justify faskh.

Other grounds, he said, included serious illness preventing marital relations, certain defects in the marriage contract and a husband’s apostasy.

Gumi also identified delegated divorce, or talaq al-tafwid, where a husband transfers divorce authority to his wife under specified conditions.

He explained that such conditions could include preventing a wife from lawful education or employment, or taking another wife.

He stressed that delegated divorce must be expressly included in the marriage contract or subsequently agreed upon by the spouses.

The cleric said Islamic law also encouraged arbitration and mediation between spouses before divorce, where reconciliation remained possible.

He cited Qur’an 4:35, which directs that arbitrators be appointed from both families when a breach between spouses is feared.

Gumi said where reconciliation failed, the arbitrators could recommend dissolution, subject to formalisation by the appropriate judicial authority.

He, however, expressed concern over challenges confronting some Sharia courts in Nigeria, including corruption, case backlogs and procedural delays.

He also cited stringent evidentiary requirements and limited legal awareness among women as factors affecting access to justice.

According to him, such challenges could leave vulnerable women trapped in abusive or untenable marriages for prolonged periods.

Gumi said women who qualified for fault based judicial annulment sometimes resorted to khul’ simply to secure faster release from abusive marriages.

He explained that such women could forfeit their dower despite potentially having grounds to retain it under judicial annulment.

The cleric argued that the gap between Islamic legal principles and courtroom realities undermined the protective objectives of Sharia.

He therefore called for effective access to justice and greater awareness of lawful options available to women facing abusive marriages. (NAN)