Pregnant woman returns ₦50,000 bride price to end marriage
A pregnant woman in Kaduna has secured a divorce by returning the ₦50,000 bride price she received, insisting on Khul’i despite her husband’s attempt at reconciliation.
Fauziyya Abdulsalam, a pregnant woman in Kaduna, has secured the dissolution of her marriage by returning the ₦50,000 bride price she received. The case, heard at Shari’a Court II, Magajin Gari, Kaduna, involved a Khul’i divorce, a form of separation under Islamic law where a woman returns her dowry to be free from her husband.
The complainant had prayed the court to dissolve her union with Ishaq Idris on the basis of Khul’i. She told the court that she was seven months pregnant and wanted her ex-husband to continue taking care of the pregnancy. The defendant confirmed ₦50,000 as the bride price but prayed the court to give him time to reconcile with his wife. The reconciliation was not successful, and the defendant sent a letter declaring one pronouncement of divorce to the complainant on the adjourned date.
The Judge, Yakubu Abdullahi, said a woman can seek Khul’i during her iddah, a three-menstrual-cycle waiting period for divorced women before they remarry. “I, Yakubu Abdullahi, the judge presiding over Shari’a Court II, Magajin Gari, hereby dissolve the union between Ishaq Idris and Fauziyya Abdulsalam based on Khul’i,” he said. The judge urged the complainant to file a new suit seeking care of the pregnancy from her husband.
The case highlights a growing pattern in Nigeria’s Shari’a courts, where women are increasingly using Khul’i to exit unhappy marriages. The rule is that if the wife is granted a divorce through Khul’i, she must refund the dowry paid to her by the husband upon marriage. The bride price is not a fixed amount, and women have been known to return sums ranging from ₦10,000 to ₦350,000, depending on what was paid at the time of marriage.
This echoes the 2024 case of another woman in Kaduna who offered to return her bride price to secure a divorce, highlighting the growing willingness of women to use their financial independence to exit unhappy marriages. The mechanism then was different, but the result was the same: women asserting their rights under Islamic law.
The winners: the woman who secured her freedom and the court that upheld her right. The losers: the husband, who lost his wife, and the unborn child, who faces a separated family.
Bottom Line: A pregnant woman returned her bride price to end her marriage. The court granted her wish. In Nigeria’s Shari’a courts, Khul’i is becoming an increasingly common path to freedom.