'Iddah (Female Menstrual Waiting Period): Difference between revisions

According to the traditional rulings of shari'ah, the after the death and divorce of a woman's husband she is not entitlted to any support from his family or estate. As the Dar-ul-Ifta says:{{Quote|[https://daruliftaa.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/rules_of_iddat-1.pdf Dar-ul-Ifta]|The '''maintenance and providing of shelter for a woman observing the Iddat of Death are not the responsibility of her in-laws. She also does not have the right to take her maintenance out of the Estate of her deceased husband.'''}}A woman has no choice but to compulsorily undergo the 'Iddah of period of 4 months and 10 days (or up to 9 months in case of pregnancy), yet she has no right for maintenance money from the estate of her husband for this long period of time, and this in traditional cultures where women often rely upon men for their sustenance. In such cultures this stricture would be a huge financial burden upon the women, who often did not and do not even have any source of income in such cultures.

According to the ruling of traditional Islamic Sharia'h, if a woman's husband dies then she is allowed to stay ''only'' in the house of her husband during this whole period of 'Iddah. She is not allowed to spend this time of 'Iddah in any other place (like house of her parents or any other family members).<ref>Fatwas Website Islamqa.Org. [https://web.archive.org/web/20211028112250/https://islamqa.org/hanafi/askmufti/45291/laws-of-the-iddat/ Laws of Iddat].</ref><ref>[https://islamqa.info/en/answers/10670/what-a-recently-widowed-woman-is-not-allowed-to-do Islam Question Answer Fatwa Website]</ref>  Sunan Abu Dawud bears witness to this custom, and further clarifies that her need for financial support is not to be taken into consideration:

===The woman has to stay in the husband’s house, even if it doesn’t belong to her husband, or even if he hasn’t left any maintenance money for the wife===