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What is the Shar’i punishment for a wife who talks to a non-mahram man and sends him her pictures and voice clips? Is it permissible to divorce her? What is the ruling on the mahr in this case? Does the divorce oath, uttered twice consecutively as "ṭāliq" (divorced) in a moment of anger, take effect on her? What should be done to continue the marital life? Is it permissible to have intercourse with her during this period?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

In such a situation, the prescribed course of action is to discipline the wife with light, non-injurious beating. Ibn Nujaym al-Hanafi stated that a husband is permitted to discipline his wife if she uncovers her face to a non-mahram or speaks to a stranger. Divorce in this situation is permissible. If you divorce her, she is entitled to her mahr and all other rights of a divorced woman. If you utter the divorce pronouncement while fully aware and not overcome by emotion, it takes effect. If you repeat the word "divorce" twice for emphasis, and not with the intention of initiating more than one divorce, then only one divorce occurs. As long as your wife is within her waiting period (iddah), you may take her back and resume conjugal relations with her, and thereby the revocable divorce is reversed. It is advised to keep your wife and not divorce her, to conceal her faults, and to treat her kindly if she is remorseful and the sincerity of her repentance becomes apparent.

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

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