An Analytical Defense of Men's Right of Divorce in Islamic Law

There has been the right of divorce in the course of history as well as the marriage. Because if there was no such right, undoubtedly it had been replaced by other alternatives as family violence, separation and single-living and emotional divorce and etc, none of which is acceptable. In Islamic Law, there is a middle way for such situation i.e. the divorce neither is a closed road nor it is a paved way but it is an uneven one hard to be walked for any body. It is a very difficult option with many conditions and constraints, for both couples for the sake of their own benefits and especially of their children. For instance, in Islamic Law such things as successive and arbitrary divorces, irreversible (zihār) divorce, swearing to abstain from intercourse (īlā'a) have been forbidden and instead, men can choose between two options: keeping spouse fairly (imsāki be marūf) or emancipating spouse fairly (tasrīh be ihsān). Here an objection can be raised that why has the right of divorce been delegated only to men and how can women take their right?The author in present paper by dividing man's right of divorce into two rights: that of separation from women and that of keeping her for himself, tries to explain the reason of this delegation. At last, it is focused on the especial supports of women rights in Islamic Law.