Legal and Social Implications for Divorce in Arab and Muslim Women - Essay Example

Firstly, there are several legal implications related to divorce in Islamic societies, particularly for women. Legally, although matters of marriage and divorce are largely governed by Sharia law, the rules of Islamic divorce and consequently, its legal implications vary among various Islamic jurisprudence from one Muslim country to another due to different cultural traditions and practices. In most cases, the Islamic laws have always been largely seen to favor men concerning their female counterparts in nearly all Arab and Muslim countries.

For instance, while Islam allows Muslim husbands to marry immediately after divorce, women are often required to observe a certain time (iddah) before they remarry or have any conjugal relations after divorce. An iddah is a period prescribed of about three months before the divorce becomes final. In most cases, the wife must remain in the home during this period to see whether a reconciliatory method of salvaging their marriage is achievable or if she is pregnant (Haddad, et al, 134).

Another important implication of divorce for a woman in the Arab and Islamic world is the potential loss of custody of her children. For example, the legal system used in Tunisia only allows the woman to have the custody of children up to the ages of 7 for boys and 9 for girls after which the husband the custody reverts to the husband.

Although the Arabic and Islamic laws do not make divorce acquiescently permissible, these laws perfectly well through their chapter-based hedges the sanctions of the practice with many defenses. In the Suratul-Talaq for example, divorce is highlighted with a lot of positivity; this scripture teaches that when you divorce a woman, divorce them at their prescribed periods, and count accurately on their prescribed periods (Mattar, 176). This gives men strength and an unquestionable will to divorce whenever they feel like it. Women on the other hand are left on the receiving end hence suffering the most whenever divorce cases are experienced.

On the other hand, may some of the major social implications of divorce for Muslim and Arab women have been reduced social status due to the social stigma associated with divorce. The Quran has two enlightening sections which exclusively deal with the subject matter of divorce among Muslim women. Women as the epicenter of the family are always on the receiving end whenever divorce cases are experienced. They are overly psychologically and socially perturbed whenever divorce cases are experienced hence there was a need through the Quran to religiously shade some light concerning divorce (Dasgupta, 121).

Generally, divorced women are often seen as social misfits in the Arab and Muslim worlds. People fear interacting with divorced women as opposed to divorced men. Perhaps this is a tradition that has always been socially practiced in the Muslim and Arabic communities. Put differently, divorced women in some extreme cases have been disowned by their family members or even the overall communities in which they live. The Quran argues liberally that husbands must be very considerable whenever they are divorcing their wives. These considerations are aimed at minimizing the psychological trauma experienced by the women in the process of divorcing. The wives during divorce occasions must be set free on equitable terms and injuries and lastly, there must not be prevented from marrying their former spouses.