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However. we can not generalize. that the right to divorce was completely<br />
in the hands <strong>of</strong> the husband; sometimes, it was in the hands <strong>of</strong> the wife.<br />
There were some women who stipulated that the right <strong>of</strong> divorce should<br />
be in their not in the hands <strong>of</strong> their husbands. We are told 'the woman<br />
in the jahiliyyah or some <strong>of</strong> them had the right to dismiss their<br />
husbands and the form <strong>of</strong> dismissal was this: If they lived in a tent,<br />
they turned it round, so that if the door had faced east, it, now faced<br />
west, and when the man saw this. he knew that he was dismissed and<br />
did not entor. Among those women_were Salma Bint'Amr b. Zayed b. Labrd<br />
al Khazrajiah. Fatimah bint al Khurshb al Anrýaryyah andeA7atikah bint<br />
Murrah. To Arabs, those women were particularly known for the many<br />
children they gave birth to. because they got married so_many times.<br />
However, the woman's procedure for divorce was different from that<br />
<strong>of</strong> the men in that she did not have to make any verbal statement<br />
or ýo declare her decision <strong>of</strong> divorce to her husband as we mentioned.<br />
Although this may seem a strange procedure, it did at least grant<br />
women in some tribes, the opportunity to express their views and take<br />
action in the event <strong>of</strong> an unsatisfactory marriage.<br />
Kinds <strong>of</strong> Divorce<br />
Divorce had many forms which stemmed from the'style <strong>of</strong> life"<br />
in the Arab society in which the Bedouin spirit prevailed. There<br />
were many kinds <strong>of</strong>'divorce'and they used many'conventions which had<br />
the same meaning as divorce,<br />
P -0<br />
1. Ila (vow <strong>of</strong> continence). Some men took the'vow <strong>of</strong>'continence<br />
to leave their wives for unspecified periods <strong>of</strong> time.<br />
2<br />
Islam<br />
suppressed this kind <strong>of</strong> divorce because this'custom was unfair to<br />
1. Ibid<br />
2. See al-JaJirT, Abd al-RahiZn. Kit7ab al-FiqehgAla al-Madf7ahib<br />
al-ArAh, Vol* 4, P. 474<br />
39