Fixation of Excessive Dower, Causes of Divorce and Its Effects: A

study in Chittagong district

Abstract
Under both Sharia law and statutory law a Muslim wife’s exclusive right on her dower has been
protected. Under Islamic law the rule of fixing dower is according to religious norms. But at
present time, in Bangladesh it has become a practice to fix the dower amount excessively. This
practice sometimes creates a burden for some husband whose ability to pay his wife’s excessive
dower amount is not in sync with his income. Moreover, now the Muslim wives on slight hassle
with their husband demand their dower as a right, elsewhere the husbands too easily divorce
their wife no matter whether they are capable to pay off the dower amount or not after divorce.
Both husband and wife forget that there are many other good ways to end this bitter hassle and
restore their relationship into a peaceful family. This research paper analyses if in Chittagong
district dower is fixed excessively and whether this excessive dower leads to divorce. Of course,
dower plays a vital role during hardships of a Muslim wife but it can never be taken as an illegal
advantage. This research paper also suggests the lawmakers to enforce an act related with
standard of fixing dower.

1.Introduction
Dower or Mahr is a woman’s personal right in Islam and it imposes an obligation upon a husband as a
mark of respect and love for his wife. The amount of dower may be fixed either before or at the time of
marriage. It may even be fixed after the marriage. There is no law respecting the fixed amount of dower
in the Shariah. The amount of dower which is fixed in practice, in Bangladesh, is according to the socio-
economic condition of the husband, on the basis of the custom followed in fixing amount of dower for
the women in their marriage in the family of the wife and the status, age, intellect, beauty, virtue and
qualifications of the wife. So, there is no standard for fixing dower. It varies from class to class in our
society. Nevertheless, the amount of dower should not be excessive and unreasonable as to create a
burden upon the husband and increasing chaos between the husband and wife. According to a
renowned Senior Assistant Judge of Chittagong Family Court, fixation of excessive dower acts as an
influencer for an increased rate in divorce, especially in Chittagong. In the introduction part, my center
of attention would be locating the statement of the problem of excessive dower, the principle research
question of the project and objective of the study respectively.

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1.1. Statement of the Problem

Excessive dower is not desirable for a man whose socio-economic condition is deplorable. According to
an analysis of several cases of a Chittagong Family Court, 95% of the suits in that court are regarding
dower and maintenance. Over and above, most of the suits for recovery of dower are filed by the wife
whose husband and family belong to lower socio-economic group. Whereas, in most cases (around
80%), the husband and wife have already dissolved their marriage contract. There are many reasons for
dissolution of the marriage and one of the reasons is the demand of excessive dower in the Kabin-nama
beyond the capacity of the husband. A custom of fixing excessive dower and subsequent inability of the
husband to pay the dower amount leads to divorce between the husband and wife. This not only affects
the husband and wife but also the child/children they have. It tends to make the future of the
child/children harsh who is/are raised by single parent. In some cases, the welfare of both husband and
wife and their child/children are ensured. This study aims to outline the factors which are responsible
for the existence of excessive dower in Chittagong and attempts to discover a standard amount of
dower which may be followed in an Islamic marriage. As, there is no standard amount fixed for dower in
both Shariah law and statutory law of our country, the problem regarding fixing a just amount of dower,
which would bring welfare for both husband and wife, is still a difficulty which needs to be unraveled.

1.2. Research Questions

 How is excessive dower system impacting our society?

1.3. Objective of the Study

The aim of the study is to find a practical solution for eradication of practice of imposing excessive
dower upon the husband. With this aim in view, the study will be conducted to discover the root
problem of the practice of fixing dower amount beyond the husband’s ability, to find out how the
practice of fixing excessive dower acts as an influencer in the dissolution of marriage and the disruption
of a family. The study will set forth the harm that is caused to the child/children in consequence of the
disruption of the marriage between the husband and wife. Besides, the amount of dower that is
prevailing between different classes of family in our society shall also be figured out. Overall, the study
shall be aims to suggest a standard in fixing the amount of Mahr, which could get the status of a
statutory law having coherence with Islamic law.

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1.4. Research Methodology
For this study, sample survey of quantitative analysis and in-depth interview of qualitative
analysis were conducted at Chittagong Family Court (1 and 2) and City Corporation respectively.
Through sample survey and in-depth interview data were collected in 2 phases. 1st phase was
conducted in 18th November 2020 and 2nd phase was conducted in 29th, 30th November and 6th
December 2020. Sample survey was conducted by Questionnaires in Bengali on 56 respondents
among those 14 were male and rest 32 were female. In-depth Interview was conducted in
Bengali on 2 respondents among them 1 is male and the other is female. While collecting data
maximum respondents of the family court were supportive but few of them hesitated to provide
data fearing of data leakage and legal problems. Moreover, some of them got irritated because of
the long questionnaire and some said they won’t get any benefit from this research and added
that law are only made and rarely applied for justice.

2. Literature Review

The objective of the literature review on the study of excessive dower and its impact on Chittagong area
is to find out if there is any viewpoint under any statutory law and existing published research articles on
the presence of the custom of imposing excessive dower upon the husband and its impact on the
husband and wife.The law on dower under section 10 of “ The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961”
direct that, if the mode of payment of dower is not specified in the marriage contract then the entire
amount of dower shall be prescribed to be payable on demand.Clause 18 of the Kabinnama framed
under the provisions of the “The Muslim Marriages and Divorces (Registration) Act, 1974 provides that
if the husband delegates his power to divorce to his wife with or without certain condition then the wife
can dissolve their marriage without intervention of any court. One of such condition may be the non-
payment of dower.Under section 2 of “The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939” the wife is
entitled to obtain a decree for dissolution of marriage under certain circumstances and the act has
confirmed under section 5 that nothing contained in that act shall affect the dower right of any Muslim
married woman on the dissolution of her marriage.
Besides in Syed Khalid Rashid’s Muslim Law1 and Mullah’s Principles of Mahomedan Law2 it has been
said that:
“Even where the wife stipulates that she will not demand any dower, she remains entitled to it and the
rule of estopple will not apply to her.”
Hence, if we overview the above laws on dower we can synthesis that a Muslim married woman by any
means is entitled to dower unless she waives it with free consent and in sound mind. Therefore, no
matter how much the dower amount is, the Muslim wife is entitled to receive it.

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But according to a research article named “The Practice of Dower and Dowry in Muslim Marriage in
Bangladesh: A Legal Analysis”3 conducted by Nahid Ferdousi, it has brought out the general practice of
not ensuring the exclusive dower right of a married Muslim woman. The researcher has tried to uphold
the protection of Muslim married womens’ right on their dower and also gave remark on ensuring it.
Moreover, there are many other scholarly research articles which have conducted studies on protection
of the dower right of a Muslim wife. Under a thesis paper namely “A Critical Analysis of Dower (Mahr)
in Theory and Practice in British India Through Court Records from 1800-1939” 4 by Sunil Tirkey, he has
tried to uphold that the inflated dower fixed by the colonial judges, as mode of protecting the lot of a
mulim wife, is not the best solution to restrict the arbitrary power of husband to divorce the wife and it
is oppressive on the husband. Moreover, the inflated dower doesn’t guarantee the husband’s love and
affection for his wife. By citing the saying of one of the Indian judges namely Krishna Iyer, Sunil Tirkey
pointed out that dower focuses on marital happiness and is an incident of conjugal joy; divorce is
farthest from the thought of the bride and bridegroom when mahr is promised and dower cannot be a
payment for divorce which is too distant and unpleasant for the bride and bridegroom to envision on
the marital bed.Consequently, by critically analyzing the above mentioned laws and research papers it
can rightly be opined that through many decades, many statutory laws nationally and internationally
along with Islamic Law on dower have tried to promote and protect the exclusive right of dower of a
Muslim married woman. But not every statute has been able to establish a standard for settling dower
amount among various classes of the society nor there has been any exclusive research so far as to the
impact of fixing excessive dower based on custom in Bangladesh.
Among Sunnis in Bangladesh there is no fixed maximum amount of dower. Fyzee cites an example based
on his personal knowledge of a dower amount of Rs. 2,20,00,000. 5 Among some of the sections of Shias,
there is a tendency not to stipulate for a sum higher than the minimum fixed by the Prophet for his
favourite daughter Fatima, the wife of Ali, namely 500 dirhams (current market value 1,20,000tk).
Hence, as the question on impact of excessive dower in Bangladesh so at Chittagong area is yet to be
unearthed, my research shall be on why there exists the custom of imposing excessive dower in
Chittagong and what are the consequences of excessive dower in our society and between the husband
and wife.

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