A Study of Disobedience of Wife in Jurisprudence and Law with Emphasis on Imam Khomeini's Viewpoint

The constituting philosophy of marriage according to the Holy Quran is creating a calm and peaceful atmosphere in marital life; but sometimes for some reasons differences occur between the marriage parties or husband and wife, as the core constituents of this Divine union. When either party avoids meeting the rights of the other party already agreed upon in the marriage contract, disobedience takes place. Sometimes this disobedience is committed by the wife and it is called disobedience of wife. In this paper, we intend to closely study this issue and clarify some unspecified issues such as the duties of wife vis-à-vis her husband, the scope of these duties, examples of disobedience, Quranic verse in disobedience, as well as misunderstandings on this verse in order to clear the realm of Islam off some unfair interpretations on disobedience by wife. To that end, we have used the opinions of the great thinker and jurist Imam Khomeini and his views on the impact of time and place in religious leadership.