QUESTION:
What do the scholars of the Dīn and muftīs of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: I live with my husband and his family; other than my bedroom, I have no other room to myself. So, can I request a separate home from my husband and is it not within my rights to have a separate house provided for me?
Questioner: Sister from UK
ANSWER:
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
No – if a woman wants a separate house i.e. she does not wish to live with her husband’s other wife or his family, then he should give her a room in the house which has a lockable door; she does not have the right to demand a separate house. This is all provided and based on the condition that the husband’s family are not causing her any type of harm [be it verbal abuse or physical abuse, etc]. What remains to be discussed is the lavatory, bathroom and kitchen; these should also be separate as well. There is detail to this that if the husband is well-off, then he should provide her with such a house with has all of these required facilities. However, if he is not [well-off], then it is enough for him to just provide the one room, even if the lavatory, etc is joint.
[‘Ālamgīrī, Radd al-Muhtār]
[Fatāwā Hindiyyah, vol 1, part 17, pg 556][1]
[1] [Bahār-e-Sharī’at, vol 2, part 8, pg 271-272]
واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری
Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri
Translated by Haider Ali
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0774] I currently live at my in-laws house, can I request a separate home from my Husband?