Is a waiting period (iddah) obligatory for a wife who has been separated from her husband for 15 years, and whom he divorced four times unofficially, and in which house should she observe the waiting period, especially since she never lived in the marital home? And is it permissible for her to show joy at the husband's death and gather with women without mourning, despite a fatwa from one of the shaykhs that mourning is obligatory?

If the father divorced the mother with three divorces during his lifetime and in good health, then she is irrevocably divorced from him with a major irreversible divorce (baynunah kubra), and she must immediately observe the waiting period (iddah) of divorce. This waiting period is not nullified by the husband's abandonment. Ibn Baz clarified that the waiting period is not nullified by the husband's prolonged absence, and it has multiple rulings not limited to ascertaining the emptiness of the womb.

However, if the father died while she was still married to him, she must observe the waiting period of death (iddah al-wafah) and mourning (ihdad), which is four months and ten days, in the house where she resided at the time of her husband's death. If the time for the waiting period passes, it is not made up.