While the personal status courts reject claims to oblige the wife to return to the marital home, “Okaz” sources indicate that claims to submit to the marital home that are not accepted turn before the courts into cases of annulment of marriage or dissolution, and family cases find great interest in separation and resolution as quickly as possible. The instructions remained not to delay them, while making every possible effort for reform and bringing the views of the two parties closer together in order to bridge the differences and melt the ice.
The sources recounted to “Okaz” how the cases of dissolution of marriage and divorce in the past, more than 10 years ago, have turned into cases that are delayed and take several months in litigation and extended and spaced sessions, and sometimes into years for adjudication, to become today one of the cases that are decided quickly according to the laws they spoke to the newspaper. .
Cases requesting the annulment of marriage and divorce have turned into lawsuits that are decided in one or two sessions over a period of days and weeks that do not exceed 30 days on average, which reflects women's access in recent years to many of their rights and important gains.
Okaz reviewed examples of divorce cases compared to what was in the past in light of the successive amendments that did justice to women's cases before the courts, the latest of which is the Personal Status Law.
Dharrah crisis ends with dislocation
The Status Court in Jeddah refused to return a wife to the marital home without her consent, and issued a decision to divorce her husband in exchange for returning the dowry, and the court obligated the wife to pay 30,000 riyals to her husband in exchange for annulment, and the court divorced the spouses, and the court made the two parties understand that the wife was divorced from her husband, Baynunah Minor, and it is not permissible for him to return To her except with a new contract that fulfills its pillars and legal conditions, and that the wife has the legal waiting period, and the court made the couple understand that they should not approach each other after the annulment of their marriage, and that the wife should not receive the letter until her waiting period ends. In a similar incident, the Personal Status Court of Appeal in Jeddah upheld a ruling that annuls the marriage of a fifty-seven-year-old wife who had expelled her husband from her home.
Take off a millionaire for one riyal!
Among the divorce rulings that “Okaz” reviewed was issued by the Jeddah Court several years ago, ruling a businessman to divorce his wife for one riyal, in a lawsuit that lasted 12 months, during which dozens of sessions were held and repeated four times by the Court of Appeal before the verdict was approved.
The businessman's wife filed a lawsuit for her husband's divorce and expressed her willingness to return his dowry that was written in the marriage contract (one riyal), justifying her request that he had abandoned her two years ago. His adherence to his wife and demanded a dismissal of the lawsuit and obligating her to return to the marital home, and the wife continued to refuse and adhere to the annulment of the marriage and expressed her agreement to sacrifice herself in exchange for his divorce. The couple eventually separated.
Disclosure verbally, in writing or by sign
The new Personal Status Law dealt with cases of divorce, and the third chapter of the system was singled out through 8 articles and legal texts, while the fourth chapter singled out cases of dissolution of marriage. According to the system, khula’ is a separation between the spouses at the request of the wife and the consent of the husband in return for consideration given by the wife or others. The khula’ is valid with the consent of the two full-fledged spouses to terminate the marriage contract without the need for a judicial ruling. The khula’ takes place with any word indicating the separation by speech or writing, and when unable to do so, then with an understandable sign. And it is considered an annulment of the marriage contract, even if it was with the word of divorce, and it is a minor irrevocable separation, and it is not counted among the three divorces.
The divorce takes place in whatever condition the wife is in, including the state of her menstruation, postpartum period, and the state of purity in which her husband had sexual intercourse with her, and the divorce does not take place if it was without compensation.
And the Personal Status Law stated that everything that is considered money can be considered as compensation for divorce, and it is not permissible for compensation to drop any of the children’s rights or custody of them. Even if it was deferred, the divorce must be documented, and the spouses or one of them must document it in accordance with the provisions regulating that, and each interested party may request proof of the divorce by any of the means of proof.
Documentation electronically with the consent of both spouses
The Ministry of Justice allowed documenting divorce cases electronically by mutual consent through the (Najez) portal, selecting electronic services, then clicking on Social Cases, then clicking on Social Status Requests, then clicking on New Request, then choosing the required service (Proof of Marriage, Dissolution, or Dissolution of Marriage) and filling out the form Documentation and submit it for review.
And the judicial communication indicated that the wife could file a lawsuit for “dissolution of marriage – divorce – proof of divorce against the husband” by submitting the application via a dedicated link, and the sessions will be remote unless the court decides to attend, and the divorce in the event of an agreement between the spouses will be through a special link, and in the event of a request The divorced wife can file the lawsuit through another link.
Reconciliation and agreement.. or separation
The decision of the Minister of Justice, Dr. Walid Al-Sama’ani, to organize division lawsuits and deal with them through conciliation or the judiciary within a period not exceeding 30 days from the date of the first session, contributed to achieving his goals by maintaining family stability, by decreasing cases of proof of divorce by 22% during 1441 AH, compared to 1440 AH. The Ministry of Justice stated that the total divorce certificates issued in 1441 AH amounted to 51,856 divorce cases, while the number of divorce cases in 1440 AH was about 67,232 divorce certificates.
And the electronic portal of the Ministry of Justice revealed that the number of marriage contracts in Jumada al-Akhira 1441 AH amounted to more than 13 thousand contracts, and the marriage contracts whose parties are Saudi nationals represented 88% of the total marriage contracts in the Kingdom, 45% of the total marriage contracts were issued in each From the regions of Makkah Al-Mukarramah and Riyadh.
The number of divorce deeds in Jumada II 1441 AH reached 7482, 52% of the total divorce deeds were issued in the regions of Makkah Al-Mukarramah and Riyadh, and the number of divorce deeds issued daily in all regions of the Kingdom ranged between 163 and 489.
He married a girl of his daughter's age… and he was divorced!
Attorney Manal Al-Harthy recounted stories of divorce files that ended in short periods that did not take more than 4 weeks at the maximum, and some of them were two weeks, including the case of a teacher who asked for divorce from her fiftieth husband after a 25-year marriage; She justified her request that her husband married a university student in her twenties at the age of his daughter. This made her feel deceived, deceived and humiliated, as she described, and she asked to end her life with her husband, and she was divorced from two sessions in which she decided to return the dowry to her husband, which was set at 35 thousand riyals, and the second case of a doctor who discovered after her retirement that her husband was secretly married to an Arab resident (Misyar). She refused to accept the situation and resorted to asking for divorce. Al-Harthy said that the courts and many law firms seek reconciliation between the spouses and keep them away from the litigation arenas in order to preserve the marital home.
For her part, lawyer Sumaya al-Hindi explained that Sharia granted the man the right to end marital life through divorce, and in return gave the woman the right to end it by divorce, when reconciliation between them was not possible, and in this it was said: If there is no agreement, then separation, and the legality of divorce was proven by the Qur’an, Sunnah and consensus. And the meaning of khul’ is a divorce in exchange for financial compensation that the wife returns to the husband, and khul’ generally means divorce for money that the woman sacrifices herself for when she wants a divorce.
Adnan Shabrawi (Jeddah) @Adnanshabrawi