A Comparative Study of Waiting Period in Islamic and Non-Muslim Countries

One of the legal jurisprudential orders which is a matter of concern is the divorce waiting period (Iddah). Today due to technological advancement there is controversy regarding the necessity of this time. The term waiting period is defined as a time of a roughly three month cycle a woman must observe during which she is not permitted to marry before the divorce is finalized. Waiting periods are of three kinds: Iddah for divorce, dissolution, and death. Regarding tradition and Quranic verses, there are divorce opinions among later or earlier scholars on the philosophy of the waiting period. In some way or not, but some believe that the woman must observe the waiting period as a matter of obedience. The comparative study of European, American, and Asian countries indicates that with advanced medical science which makes it possible to determine the woman's pregnancy, whether the above legal institutes are still necessary. In European and American laws the principle of Iddah does not exist, but it is observed in some way to protect the woman from criticism and to ensure that the male parent of any offspring produced after the cessation of marriage would be known, and whether the mother is entitled to receive maintenance. Consequently before divorce takes its full action, the following solutions have been considered in their laws: To prolong the divorce procedure, sexual abstinence during divorce petition is required of the couple, alongside prohibition of marriage during the determined time in judgment.