Texas Supreme Court has ruled that a divorce granted through Sharia law in Pakistan is not valid in the US state. The ruling came in a specific case of Pakistan-origin Texas billionaire Mohammad Ali Choudhri and his wife Hira Azhar who got married in Pakistan in 2008 through an arranged marriage. In 2013, the tycoon secretly divorced Azhar in Pakistan under Sharia law. Azhar challenged the divorce in several courts and finally the Texas Supreme Court said it does not accept the Sharia divorce and now they will have to go through an official divorce process in which Azhar will get to demand Choudhri's property. In the Sharia divorce, Choudhri paid only $50 to Azhar.
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What is the Sharia divorce case of the Texas tycoon?
Though Choudhri had lived in Texas since he was three, he traveled to Pakistan to find a bride and married 18-year-old Azhar when he was 28. Azhar moved to Houston in 2010 after getting a visa. She said Choudhri was physically and emotionally abusive throughout.
In 2013, Choudhri sent his wife to Pakistan to get her visa renewed. In her absence, Choudhri proceeded with the divorce. Without informing her, he published a talaq notice in a small notice in a Pakistani newspaper that Azhar did not see. She found out about her divorce two years later. Choudhri had to pay only $50 for the settlement.
In 2015, Azhar returned to Texas and filed for divorce in Harris County which recognized the Pakistani divorce. Then she took her case to the First Court of Appeals in Houston but there too her divorce plea was not granted. Over a decade later, the Texas Supreme Court concluded that the notice that Choudhri provided to Azhar was "constitutionally inadequate".
"Other countries are welcome to conclude otherwise, but their judgments are not entitled to comity in a Texas court," the court ruled.
Choudhri is the founder and CEO of Jetall Capital and has acquired over $1.2 billion of real estate assets across the US, Mexico, Europe, and Dubai, according to his website. He was arrested by US Marshals in April last year in connection to bankruptcy litigation. He was also sued in US court by the National Bank of Kuwait.
Sharia law divorce
The Islamic Sharia Council in London explains that under Sharia law, the husband is supposed to first ask for an arbitration meeting. If reconciliation fails, "he may divorce her either verbally or in writing – known as Talaq," with two witnesses present and only "when his wife is not on her menses, and when there has been no sexual contact with her since the time of her last menses," it says. After he pronounces the divorce, "his wife must wait for a given period of 3 months or 3 menstrual cycles. During this period, the wife is allowed to stay in the same house and the husband is responsible for her welfare and maintenance."
