Alimony is a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse upon divorce. Non-Muslims find fault with Islam that the women are not allowed Alimony after they are divorced.
During the case of Shabhanu, all the Indian newspapers propagated that Muslim woman are denied Alimony. Not only then, whenever they find chance, they never fail to criticize Islam for not allowing Alimony.
Those, who advocate Alimony is a must, put forth the following reasons.
They say “In the wedded life, women are affected more than men. She loses her youth and beauty. After losing them, if she is divorced what would be her future? Therefore, Alimony should be bestowed on her.
Even those equalize women with men in all aspects also advocate for alimony is strange. They do not understand that they contracting their own stand. If they are true to their belief that both the sexes are equal they should talk against alimony. In the family life both the couples enjoy and separate themselves for some reason. Then where comes right for women to demand alimony from the men.
Let us justify reason for Islam denying alimony. No Muslim denies this fact that the women are affected when they are divorced. Islam denies alimony, as it is not the right solution for the affected womenfolk. As a side effect, it opens bad consequence also.
When a man divorces a woman, if he does not have any resource, no court can order him to pay alimony. Even if the court orders him, he can’t fulfill it. For disobeying the court the man can be arrest but can’t recover anything from him for the affected woman. As most of our people are living a hand to mouth life only, there is no possibility of getting alimony to help the affected woman.
Some may advice that it can be implemented with affluent people. It is meaningless with them also. If a rich man divorced his wife and decided not to give any alimony to her, he can arrange false witnesses to dodge her. To those who can cheat the Government machinery from tax paying, it is easy to cheat a divorced woman. If the affluent willingly paid the woman can get or else the law can’t force him.
On the other hand, mostly the woman marries a rich man will also be wealthy. She will not be in a position to live expecting her divorced husband. For her alimony is not a must. For a rich woman, there is much opportunity to get it, but she is not in need of it.
For the poor woman alimony is a necessary one. But her divorced husband is not capable of paying it.
In a nut shell, alimony is impracticable. For what reason alimony was enforced, the law reposes in the penal code and the reason remains unsolved.
Some lawyers instigate women that they can recover alimony from their divorced husbands, but they get more fees than the recovery of the alimony. Some women after getting judgment for alimony can’t recover their alimony, but they are wandering around the court yard. Some husbands pay very little alimony. To get the little money has to travel monthly to the court and pay off bribery to court employees. Deducting the expenses, what alimony they get after a long turmoil will be almost nothing. Knowing all about the process of getting alimony is good for nothing, some claim that it is the best solution for the women. In reality, while they try to cheat others, they are cheating themselves only.
The law declares that the women are eligible for alimony until their death or remarriage.
The divorced women, who were ordered to get alimony, practically know the burden of family life, may try to get alimony to fill her stomach and live like a free bird. They may quench their physical needs illegally without any wedded life. It is also a kind of injustice to the divorced husbands who pay alimony. We don’t argue all will go astray. We worry that there won’t be any indirect legal permission to go astray in the long run.
They enquire what solution Islam has put forward for following questions:
1.How to redeem the divorced women victims from their pitiable plight?
2.If alimony is a defective solution, what is the right solution?
3.What is the future of the divorced women victims?
Islam has declared three kinds of security for the divorced women.