Dower payment to a wife (mahr) by her husband under the syrian personal status law of 1953 and some other family laws in arab countries
| Autor | Ehab Obaid |
| Cargo | Peoples' Friendship University of Russia |
| Páginas | 690-709 |
Periódico do Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre Gênero e Direito
Centro de Ciências Jurídicas - Universidade Federal da Paraíba
V. 9 - Nº 04 - Ano 2020
ISSN | 2179-7137 | http://periodicos.ufpb.br/ojs2/index.php/ged/index
690
DOWER PAYMENT TO A WIFE (MAHR) BY HER HUSBAND
UNDER THE SYRIAN PERSONAL STATUS LAW OF 1953 AND
SOME OTHER FAMILY LAWS IN ARAB COUNTRIES
Ehab Obaid
1
Abstract: The article considers the issue
of dower, which is paid by the husband
to his wife and appears as one of the
husband's liabilities according to the
provisions of the Syrian Personal Status
Law of 1953, as well as under some other
Arab family laws. The presented study
examines the views of known Islamic
jurisprudence schools on this issue,
given that the 1953 Syrian family law,
along with most of the Arab family laws,
were acquired from Islamic Sharia law.
The author also analyzes some decisions
regarding the dower ruled by the Sharia
Chamber of the Syrian Court of
Cassation. The article also reviews the
provisions of valid and invalid marriages
in order to determine the amount of the
marriage portion payment that a husband
is liable to pay.
1
"Peoples' Friendship University of Russia"
2
SPSL is the Syrian Personal Status Law of 1953 and its amendments. It sh ould be noted th at besides the
SPSL, Syria has several other laws on marriage and the family that regulate some family relations of persons
who do not consider themselves belonging to Islam.
Keywords: Mahr, dower, Islamic
school, marriage, waiting period, invalid
marriage, Mahr-al-Misl.
1. Introduction
1953 Syrian Personal Status
Law (SPSL)
2
and most of the Arab
family laws on personal status, taken
from Islamic Sharia in most of their
provisions, bind the husband to fulfill all
the family’s financial obligations. All the
liabilities within the matrimonial
relationships governed by Syrian laws on
personal status are represented by the
husband's obligations to his wife. At the
same time, the laws do not contain
anything on a similar wife's obligations
towards the husband.
Under the SPSL, the husband's
liabilities are:
Periódico do Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre Gênero e Direito
Centro de Ciências Jurídicas - Universidade Federal da Paraíba
V. 9 - Nº 04 - Ano 2020
ISSN | 2179-7137 | http://periodicos.ufpb.br/ojs2/index.php/ged/index
691
- marriage payment to the wife (Mahr);
provision of the conjugal residence;
maintenance of the wife/family (nafkah).
The presented article reviews
one of these obligations, which is the
obligation imposed upon husband to
dower the prospective spouse.
2. Materials and methods
The Syrian legislators did not
define the concept of dower in the
Personal Status Law of 1953, although
scholars from different Islamic schools
provided for its various legal frames.
Nevertheless, clear definitions of the
dower could be located in some Arab
family laws.
The author is entitled to the
opinion that dower is a payment, in the
form of money or possessions, paid by
the husband to the wife after the
marriage is consumed, regardless of
whether it is indicated in the marriage
contract or not.
3
Nurgaleev, R.M. Classical Islamic family
law: a tutorial. 5th Ed., Kazan: RIU, 2016. –
P. 25.
4
Noteworthy is the meaning that the SPSL
attributes to the marriage and the marriage
contract. Thus, Article 1 of this Law defines
marriage as follows: “Marriage is a contract
between a man and a woman who is lawfully
permissible to him, the purpose of which is
to found a bond to procreate and live
together”
Russian academician Rustam
Nurgaleev defined the dower as ‘a
mandatory wedding gift presented by a
husband to his wife’.
3
Islam considers the dower not
one of the conditions for marriage, but
one of the consequences of a prenuptial
agreement,
4
and if the condition of non-
payment of the dower by the husband
was agreed upon at the conclusion of the
marriage, then the marriage is considered
valid, and the condition is void.
5
The Maliki School of
jurisprudence is the only one to believe
that dower is considered a condition of a
marriage contract, and not a
consequence. Scholars attribute this to
the fact that spouses do not have the right
to agree that the dower is not mandated
for the husband, that is, the wife does not
have the right to renounce her right to the
dower, and therefore this represents a
necessary condition.
6
5
Al-Shāfiʿ, Muhammad ibn Idrīs. Kitab al-
Umm, part 6 / Ed. by Abdul Mutaleb; al -
Mansura (Egypt) al-Wafa Publishing House,
2001, Pp. 149-150
6
Al-Bagha, Mohammed Hassan.
Justification of Syrian Personal Status Law
(marriage and divorce) / Damascus:
Publishing House of Damascus University,
2006, P. 290
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