SHARIAsource

The parties were married on 16 August 2002 and had two children. The parties had lived harmoniously until May 2011; however, the plaintiff submitted that she and the defendant had quarrelled regularly since January 2013. This was primarily due to:

1. the defendant confessing before his family to having had an extra-marital affair;
2. continuous irreconcilable arguing and fighting between the parties;
3. the defendant having breached his marriage vows (taklik-talak); and
4. the defendant having not been physically intimate with the plaintiff since September 2013.

Problems escalated in September 2013 resulting in both parties returning to their respective parents' homes. The plaintiff had attempted to reconcile with the defendant by bringing their families together to deliberate, but to no avail. The court was also unsuccessful in its attempts to counsel the plaintiff to reconcile with the defendant. In the defendant's absence, the court granted the plaintiff an irrevocable divorce (talak bain sughra) on the grounds of ongoing conflict, pursuant to art 39 of Law No. 1 of 1974 on Marriage, art 19(f) of Government Regulation No. 9 of 1975, and art 116(f) of the Compilation of Islamic Laws.