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Is a wife who refuses to reside with her husband in his country of work entitled to spousal support or a deferred dowry if a divorce occurs, knowing that there is a document for a deferred dowry and a list of movable property?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A wife must travel with her husband to his place of residence unless she stipulated in the marriage contract that she would not be taken out of her country. If she did not stipulate this, then her refusal is an act of disobedience and insubordination (nushooz) that forfeits her right to maintenance.

As for the rights resulting from her divorce, they are: 1. Her maintenance during the waiting period (iddah) if she is pregnant, or if the divorce is revocable (raj'i) and she is not pregnant, according to the Maliki school of thought. 2. Her entitlement to the full deferred dower (sadaq mu'akhkhar). 3. Her entitlement to the agreed-upon list of movable assets (qa'imat al-manqulat).

If the wife is insubordinate (nashiz), the husband may refrain from divorcing her until she agrees with him on a ransom (fidyah) and waives some or all of her rights.

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

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