The Rights of Husband and Wife

Except for man’s role as manager, man and woman have completely equal status. For instance, if a woman kills a man, and the crime is proved, the woman will be required to pay the penalty (Qur’an, 2: 178). Similarly, as a hadith tells us, if a man kills a woman, after the crime is proved, “Verily the man will be killed for having killed a woman.”7 There is no legal discrimination in the eyes of the shari’ah between woman and man. The laws applicable to men are also applicable to women. DOWER After nikah the first obligation upon a man in regard to his wife is to give her the mahr fixed at the time of marriage: And give the women (on marriage) their dower as a free gift.8 The mahr is in no way a payment for conjugal rights. Conjugal rights are far too precious to be equated with what is normally given as mahr. The amount of mahr is, in actual fact, a token sum of money, which symbolizes, in material form, the responsibility that a man has to fulfill in regard to his wife till his last breath. What is this’ responsibility? It is that man will maintain and protect his wife for life. In the family organization the shari’ah has basically entrusted the woman with looking after the house, bringing up and training the next generation. This task is not a profitable one. That is why a woman’s maintenance is entrusted to her husband. If a woman had to shoulder both the responsibility of looking after the house as well as making money, she would not be able to perform either of the two duties properly. That is why her economic maintenance has been entrusted to her husband so that the proper upkeep of the home and family is guaranteed. At the beginning of marital life a man makes this pledge symbolically by giving the woman a sum of money in the form of mahr. MAINTENANCE The specific monetary form of the symbolic pledge is called “maintenance.” Each office brings with it responsibility, that of a man being the upkeep of his wife. In the home, man is the protector (the head). This is because man is by birth the stronger sex in the physical sense. This in no way means that he is superior to woman in the absolute sense. Whatever superiority he has relates only to those traits which make a man deserving of the office of maintainer. The wording of the above mentioned verse (4:34) means that everyone is superior to others in some particular respect. The distinguishing features required for becoming a maintainer (qawwam) are more numerous in men than in women, that is why he has been selected as the qawwam of the house. Conversely, the distinguishing features required for maintain­ing the home, for the bringing up and training of new generations are more numerous in women than in men. It is due to this kind of superiority in women that they have been entrusted with the internal affairs of the home. A woman has a legal right to maintenance, which devolves upon her husband. If he fails in