PROTECTION OF WIFE'S RIGHT TO MAINTENANCE IN BANGLADESH: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

Muslim wife has a legal right of maintenance which devolves upon her husband. This rights exclusively created by the marriage and wife is entitled to maintenance during the subsistence of the marriage and after divorce for iddat period under the Islamic Shariah and Muslim personal law in Bangladesh. Usually, the Muslim women enforces the claim for her maintenance while obtaining divorce. Divorce brings distress in her life and it also creates jeopardized situation in the society. In doing so, the controversy arises regarding the post-divorce maintenance beyond iddat period of Muslim women under Islamic Shariah. Though the judiciary of many countries are trying to reform on the post-divorce maintenance, but judicial activism of the country has not much advancement in this issue. Hence, the divorced Muslim women are not entitled post-divorce maintenance beyond iddat period in the country. In addition, often women are not getting access to family justice rather they suffered adversely for difficulties of legal procedure, male oriented society and non-implementation of Islamic values. Therefore, majority divorced woman faces many challenges of social justice and not being protected in the present legal system. The objective of the study is how and to what extent Muslim wives are being protected through maintenance under the Islamic Shariah as well as the Muslim personal law in Bangladesh. So, qualitative research method is used in this study and the primary information is collected from the Holy Quran, Sunnah and as well as different journal articles, books, reported cases and websites. It is designed based on Islamic Shariah and Muslim personal laws relating to wife’s maintenance rights in Bangladesh.