The council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, a subsidiary organ of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, in its sixteenth session, which was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, issued a resolution and a Fatwa regarding the differences between the working husband and wife and the independent financial liability of both spouses.

　　First: The Independent Financial Liability of Both Spouses

　　The wife enjoys full legal competence and an independent financial liability. She is absolutely entitled, within the framework of Sharee‘ah rulings, to all that she earns from her work and to her own private property. She has a right to own and to dispose of all that she owns. The husband has no authority over her property and she does not need his permission to own and dispose of her property.

　　Second: Marital Financial Maintenance

　　The wife deserves complete marital financial maintenance which is determined according to what is acceptable, the husband’s financial ability and sound and Sharee‘ah-approved social customs. This financial maintenance is obligatory on the husband, but not if the wife is defiantly disobedient.

　　Third: The Wife’s Work Outside the House

　　1- According to the Sharee‘ah, it is not obligatory on the wife to share in paying the expenses of the family which are by default obligatory on the husband. It is impermissible to oblige her to do this.

　　2- If the wife’s going out for work results in extra expenditure, she should pay for this.

　　Fifth: Work Set as a Condition

　　1- It is not permissible under the Sharee‘ah to make the permission (or the stipulation) contingent on her paying for the family’s expenses which are originally obligatory on the husband or giving him part of her salary.

　　4- It is impermissible for the husband to abuse the right of preventing the wife from working or of asking her to leave work if in doing so he intends to harm her or if leaving her work will result in a harm that is greater than the expected benefit.

　　3- The Academy stresses the obligation of inculcating the concept of integration between the spouses and the keenness of Islam on building the relation between them on affection and mercy.

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