The terms I use in translating documents that refer to خلع are "abdicative divorce", "divorce by abdication", or "divorce by way of abdication".

Abdication is the formal volunrary relinquishment of authority or responsibility. It is most commonly associated with the process by which a monarch gives up the throne and its privileges.

This is the best analogy that I find to خلع. Under Islamic jurisprudence, خلع is when the wife requests to be divorced in return for returning her the dowry she had received, giving up the outstanding dowry amounts, and dropping other financial rights, except child support and her own support during the time of pregnancy and breastfeeding. Gifts given to her by her husband are not included in the dowry and remain hers to keep.

This is in contrast to the case where the wife request a divorce because of the husband's violation one of his Islamically mandated marrital responsibities, whether deliberately or not. In this case the wife retains all her dowry and her financial rights. In fact in this case, if the husband refuses to divorce the wife, the marriage is annulled by the Islamic court or arbitrator.

In both cases it is the husband who divorces the wife, but at her request.

Hope this helps,

Alaa Zeineldine


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Note added at 2002-02-18 15:54:46 (GMT)
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\"Divorce by adbication is a little known subjects\", or \"divorce by abdication is considered a subject of which people are not well aware\".

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Note added at 2002-02-18 16:48:54 (GMT)
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Please excuse my typos.

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Note added at 2002-02-18 18:03:14 (GMT)
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The following ayah (albaqara, 2:229) contains the Quranic reference to the subject. The tafsir can be accessed at the link below:

http://quran.al-islam.com/Tafseer/DispTafsser.asp?l=arb&taf=...

الطَّلَاقُ مَرَّتَانِ فَإِمْسَاكٌ بِمَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ تَسْرِيحٌ بِإِحْسَانٍ وَلَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَنْ تَأْخُذُوا مِمَّا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ شَيْئًا إِلَّا أَنْ يَخَافَا أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا يُقِيمَا حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا فِيمَا افْتَدَتْ بِهِ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ اللَّهِ فَلَا تَعْتَدُوهَا وَمَنْ يَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَ اللَّهِ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ