Across most of the world, a person who wants out of a marriage can walk into a courthouse and begin the process themselves. That right, however, is not universal. In a number of countries, deeply rooted religious law and male guardianship systems mean that a woman cannot legally end her marriage without her husband’s approval, a court’s intervention on extraordinary grounds, or a financial concession that punishes her simply for trying to leave. These are not historical footnotes. These are laws actively governing millions of women’s lives right now, in 2026 and beyond.
1. Saudi Arabia
Filing for divorce is incredibly difficult for women in Saudi Arabia. The law only permits a woman to obtain a divorce with her husband’s approval or if he has caused her harm. In reality, it is still extremely tough for Saudi women to obtain a judicial divorce. Men, by contrast, have a very different experience. Men hold the unilateral right to get a summary divorce, known as talaq, without having to provide any legal justification, and the divorce becomes effective immediately.
The three permissible methods of divorce under Saudi family law include talaq, the husband’s unilateral tool for divorce; khul’, the wife’s request for divorce contingent on her husband’s consent; and faskh, marital termination by judicial decree. A February 2025 update to Saudi Arabia’s Personal Status Law introduced some new provisions. Section 1 of Article 30 of the new regulations stipulates that if arbitrators fail to reconcile the spouses and the husband is solely at fault for the marital breakdown, they must recommend a separation without requiring the wife to provide material compensation. Still, Saudi Arabia’s longstanding male guardianship system has historically limited women’s legal autonomy, with this system vesting male guardians with legal authority over women’s personal decisions, and the guardian’s consent remained required in multiple areas, including the woman’s marital decisions and her divorce.
2. Iran
For divorce, men in Iran legally hold the unilateral right to dissolve a marriage at will. Women, on the other hand, must apply to a court and present proof of their husband’s failure to fulfill obligations such as providing housing, food, or healthcare. They must also demonstrate that they have fulfilled their own marital duties, including obedience to their husband in areas such as sex and permission to leave the home. The imbalance is stark and codified. Iranian law allows men to prevent their wives from traveling or taking up certain jobs, unless the woman obtains a power of attorney from her husband – either at the time of marriage or afterward – granting her the right to travel, work, or initiate divorce.
A husband can divorce his wife “whenever he wishes to do so” under Article 1133 of the Civil Code by uttering a phrase in Arabic in front of two male witnesses. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, “it is extraordinarily difficult” for women to get a divorce in the Islamic Republic, with onerous conditions that are often impossible to meet and are at the discretion of the deciding judge, resulting in the woman losing financial maintenance and child custody. In 2024, Iran ranked 143 out of 146 countries assessed in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, according to Impact Iran’s December 2024 factsheet, reflecting the broad scope of gender-based legal inequality in the country.
3. Afghanistan
The Taliban have cancelled all court orders for women seeking divorce, and there is no longer a functioning legislative body in Afghanistan, nor a constitution. The situation on the ground is severe. A letter reviewed by the Afghanistan Analysts Network, sent from the Supreme Court to the Khost provincial court on April 7, 2024, stated that a judicial form of separation known as tafriq “is suspended until further notice.” That leaves only three types of divorce available to a woman: she can agree a khul with her husband through a negotiated financial settlement; she can apply for divorce if her husband has been absent so long he is presumed dead; or she can apply for divorce on grounds that he is incurably ill, including impotence.
The lawyers interviewed for the research unanimously agreed that it has become much more difficult for women to separate from their husbands since the Taliban returned to power. No lawyer reported successfully raising a case of tafriq in court since the takeover, and all believed it was now prohibited. Women are prohibited from representing themselves in court and instead must be represented by a male family member. Divorce for women has become almost impossible in practice, according to a 2025 UN CEDAW Committee expert statement on Afghanistan.
4. Pakistan
In Pakistan, men can use talaq divorce to end their marriage by stating three times that they want a divorce. This process must be registered with the Union Council to be validated. Women cannot divorce without providing a listed reason and following the process through court. The inequality between male and female access to divorce is written directly into the legal framework. A woman must meet a defined threshold of justification, while a man is simply required to declare his intention.
The broader regional context helps explain how entrenched this system is. Divorce in Islam is permitted, but the theology provides different rules for husbands versus wives. Husbands may initiate divorce through “Talaq,” for any reason without requiring the wife’s agreement. Laws and regulations regarding divorce proceedings vary in different Muslim majority countries, with several criminalizing Triple Talaq. Pakistan has officially restricted the instant triple talaq form, but the underlying structural inequality – that a man may divorce without court proceedings while a woman must go through a formal judicial process – remains firmly in place.
5. Algeria
Algeria also uses the talaq system of divorce. If women wish to divorce, they must either prove wrongdoing on the part of their husband, or they can choose to end the marriage through “khol,” which requires a full repayment of the dowry. This financial condition alone creates a massive practical barrier for women, many of whom lack independent economic resources sufficient to buy their way out of a marriage. The law, in effect, charges women a fee to exercise a right men hold freely.
The khol mechanism, which requires a wife to return her dowry as the price of initiating a divorce, is a pattern seen across several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. It reflects a system in which women’s access to legal separation is treated as a negotiated transaction rather than a fundamental right. Women who cannot afford to repay the dowry have no practical recourse if their husbands refuse to grant a talaq divorce. The structural imbalance is not incidental. It is the design.
6. Egypt
Egypt introduced no-fault divorce in 2000, but Egyptian women still face unequal access to family courts and protections under the law. Prior to the new laws, women could only be granted a divorce if they could prove physical or psychological abuse, while men only needed to follow the Islamic law of saying “I divorce you” three times, or file a notice with the government marriage registrar. The reform was real, but incomplete. Women can now file for no-fault divorce, but must give up all financial and property rights to do so and repay any dowry their husbands gave to the wife’s family upon the marriage.
To receive any sort of support, women must be able to prove their husband harmed them during their marriage, often needing eyewitnesses even for physical abuse. Egyptian men, however, have unconditional rights to divorce and don’t even need to go to court to obtain it. Women filing for divorce have to go through mediation with their estranged husband, while men have no such requirement. In Egypt, personal status laws give priority to Islamic rules for marriage and divorce. However, this rule does not apply to non-Muslim couples who share the same religious denomination. For instance, a Catholic husband with a Coptic wife would not be subject to Islamic law under the current regulations.
