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Is a wife entitled to abandon her husband in bed and refuse to grant him his marital rights if the husband is a harasser and has harassed many women, including his son's wife and his sister, despite the wife fulfilling all her other duties?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a man harasses women, especially his maharim (unmarriageable kin), he is committing a grave evil. It is obligatory to advise him, remind him of Allah and instill fear of Him in him, and prevent him from the causes of this evil. The wife has the right to seek divorce or khul' (divorce at the wife's instance, usually by returning the dower) from him if he does not stop these actions. If she does not desire a divorce, it is obligatory for her to allow him to enjoy her, unless she has a legitimate excuse such as illness, an obligatory fast, or harm. The wife's right to maintenance is forfeited if she refuses the preliminaries of intercourse without an excuse. If the husband refuses to provide maintenance, she has the right to refuse him conjugal relations. It is safer for the wife not to refuse her husband's request without an excuse, due to the generality of the evidence that obliges obedience to him in conjugal relations and prohibits refusal without an excuse.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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