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What is the ruling of Islamic law regarding a wife who refuses to move and live with her husband in his new country of residence, using work and an unwillingness to be away from her family as excuses?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is the husband's right upon his wife that she reside with him wherever he wishes, and she has no right to refuse unless she stipulated otherwise in the marriage contract. Otherwise, her refusal would be considered nushuz (disobedience), for which she would be sinful and deprived of maintenance. She must obey him in moving with him, even if her reason for refusal is work or an unwillingness to be far from her family, for her husband has a great right over her.

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

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