Title: From Community to Court: Gendered Experience of Divorce
Abstract: One January morning, a gregarious woman named Shindano arrived at the court to ask for a receipt verifying that her husband, Abu Bakr, had divorced her. Shindano appeared to be about 60, wore a colorful kanga, and was barefoot. After waiting outside the courtroom on the steps for a short time, the clerks called her inside and asked her why she had come to court. Shindano told them about her husband's many violations of his marital duties and the distress he had caused her. She explained that Abu Bakr had divorced her, but later came to her home and announced that they were still married and demanded that she return to him: "He chased me out of his house, he got rid of all my vyombo (household goods) that were in the house and put them outside, and now he says that he didn't divorce me!" The clerks asked her for Abu Bakr's written statement of repudiation as proof of divorce. When she said that she did not have such a paper, they told her to bring her husband to court. When he came to court, Abu Bakr said that he had not divorced her and had never intended to do so.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot