There are 3 ways of divorce in Islam :
TALAQ
Talaq is when a husband divorces the wife by saying "Talaq" 3 times.
Talaq's rules in Islam
The husband cannot take his mahr back and he needs to pay the money compensation to his wife at least 3 months of expenses ( food and shelter only for her - not including the children )
If he divorces his wife before getting intimate with his wife, he gets 1/2 of his mahr back
The husband is not allowed to divorce his wife when she is pregnant or in period ( menstruation )
Talaq in Pakistan
The Husband can divorce the wife for any reason ( even fake reasons) or without any reasons. The wife cannot challenge the reason for divorce although the reason is fake, or he divorces the wife without reason. Unless the husband divorces the wife in her period time or during her pregnancy.
The husband needs to make divorce papers that are attested by a public notary and contain the witnesses' signature on it and also "the divorce deed". He needs to make all these papers with a Pakistani lawyer, and also submit the papers to Union Council where they register the marriage.
If he doesn't submit all of the divorce documents to Union Council or he just divorce the wife utterly ( by saying talaq ) after 90 days, the wife can sue the husband to Pakistan family court for triple talaq allegations, and the court can send him to jail.
If he submits the papers to Union Council, the Union Council will give a letter that advises them to reconcile but if no response from the husband, after 90 days the Union Council will give a divorce certificate, and the wife can get a copy of the certificate from the UC.
The Divorce deeds and divorce papers cannot be used as evidence of legal divorce documents, because the wife can sue her husband for triple talaq allegations because he hasn't registered the divorce to court and the wife cannot get a divorce certificate.
IDDAT MONEY AND CHILD COMPENSATION MONEY
The wife will get iddat money ( money compensation for food and rent a room / her expenses for 3 months) and the kid’s maintenance is the duty of the father.
The mother can get kids custody until the son turns 7 y/o and the daughter gets her first period after that she needs to send them to the father unless the father doesn’t want to take them.
If the father refuses to send money for the kids and doesn’t pay his iddat money, she has to take this case to the court with the evidence or his salary and refusal for sending the money. the court will call him and ask him to pay, if he fails to pay, the court will take his property and sell the assets and give the money to the wife and kids. If he doesn’t have any assets, he will be sent to jail
The mother can lose child custody if she marries another man.
Download the sample of divorce documents here :
Khulu / Khula
Khulu is when a wife asks for a divorce from her husband to the judge or court.
Khulu's rules in Islam
1. The wife needs to give her mahr back
In Prophet’s era, this happened when the wife didn’t have a strong reason to divorce her husband, she didn’t love he husband or she might want to marry someone else.
Khulu in Pakistan
The wife needs to bring this case to Pakistani court and the judge ( Qazi ) will decide it for her and she needs to give her Mahr (Islamic dowry) back to the husband.
If she writes a clausal on her Nikkah Nama Letter when she gets married that when she asks for a divorce with certain of reason, the husband will grant her divorce and she doesn’t need to give her mahr back, then she can get a divorce without paying her mahr back. However, if she doesn’t put this in her Nikkah Nama Letter then she needs to give her Mahr back to her husband.
If she has strong reasons to take a divorce such as domestic violence, polygamy and she doesn’t accept that, the husband doesn’t give financial support, the husband cheats on her, etc. But she doesn’t put "not giving up mahr clausal" in her Nikkah Nama Letter, she should hire a lawyer to keep her mahr and to get full child custody and guardianship of the children.
FASAKH
Fasakh's rule in Islam
The Judge annuls the marriage because they marry their mahram ( people who are not allowed to marry in Islam - sibling, uncle, aunt, father in law, etc ) or one of the couples lies about their background.
The Judge gives talaq to the wife because the husband doesn’t fulfill his responsibility but he doesn’t want to divorce his wife, the husband is murtad ( not a Muslim anymore), or the husband disappears without news.
If this happens the wife can keep her mahr, she doesn’t have to pay her mahr back.