Marriages Rules (Articles 20 -23)

These four articles deal with relations between husband and wife. Article 20 obligates the husband to pay the dower, provide for his wife from the day the marriage contract was signed, and gives both equal inheritance rights. See Article 69 in Ottoman Law.

Article 21 rules that the woman does not have the right to claim the dower (maintenance) before divorce, or the husband's death.

Among the Israeli Druzes, it is unacceptable to demand a deferred dower before divorce, (the concept of deferred dower does not exist).

Under Ottoman Law (Articles 81-82), this part of the maintenance shall be paid if one of the above occur, or after a number of years, which shall be determined in advance.

Article 22 obligates the woman to live in her husband's house after the dowry has been received and after the wedding ceremony has been performed, on condition that the house is "legal", meaning that the house is fit for the family to live in it. The wife shall also move with her husband to another town unless there are reasonable grounds for her not doing so. Ottoman Law does not require the woman to move into her husband's house after the legal wedding ceremony, for the Druze unlike the Moslems, draw up the marriage contract before the wedding takes place.

Article 23 rules that the husband shall treat his wife with affection and as an equal. The wife shall honor the husband's legal rights emanating from the marriage. The Ottoman Law (Article 73) does not require the husband to give his wife equal standing with himself. This expresses the legal status and equality of the Druze woman. Anderson stresses that this is unique to the Druzes, who take pride in the fact that "a more honorable place is given to women." (10).

In Ottoman Law there are two chapters before the chapter that is parallel to chapter 4, which deal with the equal status of the couple and on the subject of void and unacceptable marriages.

The first chapter rules that the couple shall be of equal standing (Articles 45-50). This condition is not acceptable to the Druze and in fact does not appear, except in cases where there are wide differences between the two, and even then the Druze usually prevent such marriages. The Druze legislators therefore did not see fit to promulgate such a law, and preferred to ignore it altogether.

Intorduction Chapter 1 - Eligibility to Enter into Marriage (Articles 1 - 5) Chapter 2 - Forbidden Marriages (article 9 - 13) Chapter 3 - Arranging the Marriage (Articles 14 -19) Chapter 4 - Marriages Rules (Articles 20 -23) Chapter 5 - Dower ("Mahr") (Articles 24 - 27) Chapter 6 - Maintenance (Nafaqa) (Articles 28-36) Chapter 7 - Separation (Article 37-49) Chapter 8 - Waiting Period (Idda) (Articles 50-53) Chapter 9 - The custody of the children (Articles 54-66) Chapter 10 - Child allowance (Articles 67-74) Chapter 11- Payments by sons to parents and other relatives (Articles 75-80) Chapter 12 - Guardianship over minors (Articles 81-87) Chapter 13- Guardianship and wills (Article 88-98) Chapter 14- Responsibilities of the guardian [executor] (Articles 99-118) Chapter 15- Circumstances under with a Qadi may disqualify a person and appoint a guardian (Articles 119 -125) Chapter 16 - A Missing Person and his Trustee (article 126 -136) Chapter 17 - Paternity (nasab) (Articles 137-144) Chapter 18 - Wills and Inheritance (2) (Articles 145 -170) End Notes